Anger of Damilola's parents over 'dreadful errors' in investigation

The parents of Damilola Taylor voiced their anger last night after an official report revealed how glaring blunders by forensic experts hindered the hunt for the schoolboy's killers.

Richard and Gloria Taylor said they had suffered "beyond words" because of the blunders, and condemned the report's findings as "lame".

They demanded action against three forensic scientists who failed to spot bloodstains which could have solved the crime quickly.

The report is highly critical of the way the Forensic Science Service tested shoes and clothing belonging to the two brothers eventually convicted of Damilola's manslaughter on a housing estate in Peckham, south London, seven years ago.

Two laboratory staff and a senior supervisor overlooked small bloodstains in the days immediately after the tenyearold was stabbed to death.

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The evidence linking the killers to the scene was found when the belongings were tested again three years later.

Danny and Rickie Preddie, aged 18 and 19, are serving eight-year sentences for manslaughter after being convicted at a third trial in August last year.

The Forensic Science Service is a Government-owned company which carries out most forensic tests for police force investigations from its 11 laboratory sites across the country.

The report published yesterday highlights failings by the three staff, one of whom still works for the organisation.

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It describes "extremely regrettable human errors" but claims there were no wider "systemic failures" by the FSS.

The first trial was in 2002, when four teenage boys had charges against them dropped or were found not guilty.

The next year police ordered a full review of forensic evidence by a private company, the Forensic Alliance, which spotted the bloodstains which had been missed by the FSS.

It still took two further trials for the Preddie brothers to be convicted of manslaughter.

At the second of the three trials, former FSS scientist Sian Hedges admitted failing to spot a small bloodstain on the heel of a Reebok trainer, while her colleague Owen Gale, who had also since left the FSS, admitted missing a stain on the cuff of a black sweatshirt.

Both were "extremely upset" by their mistakes, the report says.

Their boss, an unnamed senior FSS Reporting Officer, is criticised for failing to review their work properly.

All three staff had admitted their mistakes, and made no attempt to cover them up.

The Reporting Officer blamed "pressures" on the laboratory, and the report notes that police had sent 441 items for forensic tests as part of their urgent hunt for Damilola's killers.

In future, it recommended that all such items should be tested twice.

That would add millions of pounds to the cost of criminal investigations, and according to the report would have increased the bill for forensic tests in the Damilola case by £ 55,000.

In a statement, Damilola's parents said that those responsible should be brought to account.

They said: "Those fatal errors resulted in years of delay and pain for the family in their search for justice for Damilola.

"The family have suffered beyond words during the twists and turns in the investigations which led to three separate trials.

"The basic mistakes that were made by the forensic experts had catastrophic effects."

They condemned the report as "lame in the extreme" for the way it described the catalogue of blunders as "extremely regrettable", and demanded a full overhaul of forensic laboratory procedures.