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DNA kits to stop bus spit attacks
By Nigel Rosser, Evening Standard Last updated at 00:00am on 01.09.04Bus drivers are to be issued with DNA testing kits to help catch passengers who spit at them.
The saliva of violent yobs will be preserved using sterile swabs and handed to police for searches of the national DNA database.
Some 2,500 kits - containing two swabs, gloves and an evidence bag - will be given to drivers and other transport workers whose routes take them through Brent. Evidence collected by the operation - codenamed "Gobstopper" - will be used alongside CCTV to prosecute "disgusting" attackers.
A Met Police spokesman said: "If a DNA match is made police will arrest and charge an offender with either public nuisance or actual bodily harm."
The kits are being introduced by bus operator Metroline with the support of the Transport & General Workers Union.
Brent Chief Superintendent Andy Bamber said they would help "identify and prosecute those responsible for this disgusting offence".
