Britons win DNA landmark decision

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The European Court of Human Rights severely criticised police powers to take and hold samples from suspects even if they are released or cleared.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she was disappointed with the ruling and would consider it carefully before responding.

The result is a victory for two Britons who have been fighting to change the law after police insisted on retaining their DNA records.

Michael Marper, 45, was arrested in March 2001 and charged with harassing his partner, but the case was dropped three months later after the two were reconciled. He had no previous convictions. In a separate case, a 19-year-old named in court only as "S" was arrested and charged with attempted robbery in January 2001 when he was 12, but he was cleared five months later.

The men, both from Sheffield, asked that their fingerprints, DNA samples and profiles be destroyed. South Yorkshire Police refused, saying the details would be retained "to aid criminal investigation".

The men's claims were later thrown out by the House of Lords, which ruled that keeping the information was not illegal under the Criminal Justice and Police Act, and did not breach human rights.

But earlier this year, when the cases came before the Human Rights Court, lawyers for the two men argued that keeping the DNA of innocent citizens left them under a cloud of suspicion.

It violated their "right to respect for private life" and "prohibition of discrimination" safeguarded by the Human Rights Convention, to which the UK is a signatory.

The verdict from the European Court of Human Rights could force the Government to remove the DNA details of hundreds of thousands of Britons from the current total of about 4.5 million held on the England, Wales and Northern Ireland database.