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Jim, London.
killer of of Sally Ann Bowman in south London, caught by DNA.
the Ipswich murderer, caught by DNA.
And many more, if allowed to continue these people can go on to do further crimes, perhaps rape and murder a member of your family, not sure what World you live in Jim, perhaps you don't hear of the sexual assaults, rapes, muggings, murders, paedophile assaults on kids, burglaries, and more, these are all crimes that can be detected by DNA, and if you have a brighter idea, please let us all know.
Yes I am one of those "nothing to hide, nothing to fear brigade", and have no intention of starting a life of crime, but I am sure with a full and proper national data base for DNA, there will be a lot of people very worried about there past sins.

- David Crocket, Bradford, UK., 17/09/2009 11:27
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"Tory plans to cut the size of the “Big Brother” state would allow murderers and rapists to escape justice, Home Secretary Alan Johnson claimed today."- Absolute crap. In the vast majority of cases DNA is only pivotal where a suspect has already been identified by other means, the DNA evidence serving only to support other evidence showing that the suspect was, or had been, at a certain place.
The number of cases where a previously unidentified suspect has been found because of database trawls that include those never convicted or reported are very few and far between.
The current DNA collection and retention laws exist because the EU has directed that we must have a biometric ID database, and this is the back door to that big brother device.
The DNA database is a political tool and its blatant abuse by megalomaniac politicians is just one of a raft of New Labour policies that have seriously undermined public confidence in the Police.
As custidians of this disproportinate database we are always seen as the villains of the piece, when tthe real culprits are a select few that sit on the EU Commission, the Blair/Brown cabinet and the sheep that follow them.

- Belfast Cop, Belfast, 16/09/2009 15:03
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So, according to (yet another) Labour Home Secretary - "Tory plans to cut the size of the “Big Brother” state would allow murderers and rapists to escape justice"

But what Alan Johnson seems to forget is that, under this failed Labour Government (with god only knows how many different Home Secretary's in the last 5 years) murderers & rapists have been avoiding justice for the last 12 years!!! Many have been "released into the community", or released after serving less than half their sentence (often committing further crimes). Several have escaped mid-sentence & are still on the run.

- Malcolm, London, 16/09/2009 14:45
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How many times have we read that murderers, rapists etc have been let out of prison early??? And how many of them have gone on to commit the same and/or other crimes?
Not only that, because of the deliberate policy of not properly enforcing border security regarding ILlegal immigrants, we have had many cases of those, who have committed murders and rapes in this country.
The problem with the criminally negligent idiots in Government is that they refuse to SERVE us and do what WE want; they are not fit for purpose and are going to be deservedly kicked out of office next year.

- Ralph, London, 16/09/2009 14:26
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Yes, a guilty person may evade the law. We are innocent until proved guilty. That's better than convicting an innocent man of a crime he did not commit. It's only a lynch mob that thinks otherwise.

We must bear in mind there are serious reverse risks. An innocent person's DNA profile in a government database can be (and will be) stolen. In a few years time, the technology to manufacture DNA matching that profile will be widely available, and criminals will use it to plant a random innocent person's DNA at their crime scenes. When that happens, pray that you have an rock-solid alibi!

Also, the more people are in the database, the greater the chance of a false match. How many people do there have to be in a room, before it is odds-on that at least two of them share a birthday? The answer is 23. With 50 people, it's all bar certain.

After a few high-profile cases of an innocent person being convicted, jurors will cease to trust DNA evidence at all. That will be another big win for the criminals.

No-one should be in a DNA database, who has not already been convicted of a serious (imprisonable) crime.

- Nigel, London, 16/09/2009 13:11
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David Crocket

"Only the people that have something to hide should be worried."

Didn't chairman Mao say something like that?


"I am all for DNA registration for everyone, from the cradle to the grave"

So how is that going to work? Some PC plod clomping around maternity wards? Dawn raids after home births?

Seriously, how long would it be before the information is leaked? The security on government databases is a joke. More to the point how long before the information is SOLD? Look at the situation with car clampers and their access to the supposedly confidential DVLA database, two pounds fifty a time.

- Tobin, Andover, 16/09/2009 12:57
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To David Crocket (and the rest of the nothing to hide - nothing to fear brigade) There has not been ONE single case of a person whose DNA was on this database while not having been convicted of a crime being subsequently linked (note: I said and meant linked not tried or convicted) to any of those serious crimes you mention. There are however 1500 people who the Home Office wrongly added to the paedophile/violent criminal registers because they had a similar name (or lived in the same street) as someone who should have been on the register. There is also the reported cases of DNA being artificially created so, how long before someone using this database will add your DNA (created in a laboratory) to a crime scene?

All this assumes that the perpetrator of the crime is not one of the 2 other people in the world whose DNA matches yours as, according to the statements, the test is accurate to 1 in a billion.

- Jim, London, 16/09/2009 12:02
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Why don't Labour insist that we are all tattooed with a unique number and be done with it?

- George, London, 16/09/2009 11:38
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It seems to me that the country is overwhelmed with paedophiles, rapists, murderers, illegal immigrants etc, and with investigations into thieving members of parliament, on all sides of the house, I think the police have their hands full, I am all for DNA registration for everyone, from the cradle to the grave, only the people that have something to hide should be worried.
There is not a day goes by, that you read of some lowlife, being convicted of DNA evidence, so I say great, these mouthy MPs should be arguing for bigger and more secure prisons.

- David Crocket, Bradford, UK, 16/09/2009 10:43
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Didn't the EU court declare that holding DNA of innocent people illegal. Therefore, is this not just the implimentation of that legal ruling. Apart from that, I have a good friend who was accused by his own daughter of sexual haarasment, it was proven that on a number a times when the offences allegedly took place he was out of the country on business. The complainent even addmitted to the police that she falsley accused him, but can he get his DNA removed. Er no. Inspector Knacker does't do that, even though they obtained the evidence that proved my mate innocent. Question is, why not? So Mr Johnson your statements are flawed.

- Alan, carlisle uk, 16/09/2009 09:50
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More than anything over the past 12 years I have hated seeing the State impinge further and further into the privacy and basic rights of the individual.
In a supposedly democratic country I find the vast increase in State powers to be wholly unacceptable and would be prepared to consider voting Tory on this single point alone.

- Philip Booker, Brighton UK, 16/09/2009 09:36
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Is there not a single person on the government front bench who doesn't talk like a complete tarpaulin?

- Threaded, Roskilde, Denmark, 16/09/2009 09:21
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