Rapist caught by DNA on craft knife 12 years after attack

[BrilloPad]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...er-attack.html

It is odd as I am very pleased he was caught. But I feel very uneasy at him being arrested for doing his civic duty.

Maybe we should just have a national DNA database and be done with it?

[Platypus]

But I feel very uneasy at him being arrested for doing his civic duty

I'm not.

Maybe we should just have a national DNA database and be done with it?

Humm it does make you wonder. I'm leaning toward "yes"

[Ruprect]

I'm not.



Humm it does make you wonder. I'm leaning toward "yes"

police state

[Moscow Mule]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...er-attack.html

It is odd as I am very pleased he was caught. But I feel very uneasy at him being arrested for doing his civic duty.

Maybe we should just have a national DNA database and be done with it?

There's got to be more to it than that. School receptionists are normally quite sensible people - they have to deal with kids each day.

Why would they phone the police about a man brandishing a knife if he wasn't?

Why would he be arrested unless the school wanted him arrested?

[Platypus]

police state

Yes, I know. The dilemma is that while a DNA database for catching rapists can be viewed as a good thing, how long would it be before the database was used to catch litterers and door knockers?

If only we could trust the state to do the right thing

[dang65]

What a very odd story.

The problem with having a DNA database with most the population on it though is that DNA ends up all over the place. You could touch a television on display in a second-hand shop, which then gets bought by someone, whose flat then gets burgled... and your DNA is found on their telly.

Then you have to prove your innocence, because DNA is infallible, right?

There was a programme about this on the telly a while ago and a similar thing happened to a guy who was actually housebound but had his DNA on the database after some kind of motoring incident years before. He was accused of breaking and entering someone's house 150 miles away or something and spent a year trying to prove his innocence.

It would be chaos if everyone was on there, and would be the complete reverse of "if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear" as most people who had something to hide would be ultra careful about leaving their DNA lying around while the rest of us could expect a knock at the door any time just for having used the same taxi as a mugging victim or whatever.

[minestrone]

What a very odd story.

The problem with having a DNA database with most the population on it though is that DNA ends up all over the place. You could touch a television on display in a second-hand shop, which then gets bought by someone, whose flat then gets burgled... and your DNA is found on their telly.

Then you have to prove your innocence, because DNA is infallible, right?

There was a programme about this on the telly a while ago and a similar thing happened to a guy who was actually housebound but had his DNA on the database after some kind of motoring incident years before. He was accused of breaking and entering someone's house 150 miles away or something and spent a year trying to prove his innocence.

It would be chaos if everyone was on there, and would be the complete reverse of "if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear" as most people who had something to hide would be ultra careful about leaving their DNA lying around while the rest of us could expect a knock at the door any time just for having used the same taxi as a mugging victim or whatever.

No they tried to prove he was guilty and failed.

[Platypus]

What a very odd story.

The problem with having a DNA database with most the population on it though is that DNA ends up all over the place. You could touch a television on display in a second-hand shop, which then gets bought by someone, whose flat then gets burgled... and your DNA is found on their telly.

Then you have to prove your innocence, because DNA is infallible, right?

There was a programme about this on the telly a while ago and a similar thing happened to a guy who was actually housebound but had his DNA on the database after some kind of motoring incident years before. He was accused of breaking and entering someone's house 150 miles away or something and spent a year trying to prove his innocence.

It would be chaos if everyone was on there, and would be the complete reverse of "if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear" as most people who had something to hide would be ultra careful about leaving their DNA lying around while the rest of us could expect a knock at the door any time just for having used the same taxi as a mugging victim or whatever.

OK now I've changed my mind again - "No" to a DNA database!

[Purple Dalek]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...er-attack.html

It is odd as I am very pleased he was caught. But I feel very uneasy at him being arrested for doing his civic duty.

Maybe we should just have a national DNA database and be done with it?

The rule is if you turn up at a school with a knife the police are called. No exceptions. And the Police will arrest you. No exceptions.

HTH

As to a DNA database: it is better that one guilty man walks free than an innocent is punished. As the DNA database gets bigger, the incidents of wrongful arrest and people having to prove their innocence are increasing right along with it. That is just wrong. It's just not the English way.

[EternalOptimist]

I feel a strong urge to go to the Albert hall, in order to retrieve some of A. Hitlers DNA. I would mix it with a bogie from Brown, and some of Bliars oiliness.
Then I would grow it in a culture dish and sell packets to criminals, so they could scatter it at crime scenes.


DNA database my @rse