http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2114252/Teenager-spends-months-bars-DNA-blunder-fingers-rape-city-visited.htmlQuote:
A DNA blunder led to a teenager spending three months behind bars after he was accused of rape in a city he had never even visited.
Adam Scott, from Truro, Cornwall, was charged with attacking a woman in a park in Blackley, Manchester, after his gene test was mixed with a sample of the attacker's DNA that had been taken from the victim.
He had provided a sample in connection with another incident that was also being processed at a laboratory run by LGC Forensics.
Thing that caught my eye is the fact they only had the DNA evidence and nothing else but still charged him despite protests from the youth that he had never even visited Manchester!
The system is right it can never be wrong..Or can it
To give the police their due they did do some digging.
Quote:
Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood of Greater Manchester Police told the Daily Mirror that the teenager 'was absolutely adamant that he had never been to Manchester so that gave us some concern'.
But,
Quote:
He added: 'We went back to the supplier who was absolutely adamanant that this was not the case so we charged the man with Crown Prosecution Service support.
Then
Quote:
'Last week we were contacted by the supplier who said unfortunately the sample was contaminated.'
How many more innocent people are behind bars due to cock ups like this?
DNA evidence is very powerful but it must not be the end all or sole tool to convict. Prosecuting authorities must always establish other evidence to present alongside this.
If this had gone to Court a jury (no doubt brainwashed of the fact that DNA cannot be wrong) and the lab lying about the provenance of the sample would have created a miscarriage of justice.
If I am ever asked to submit a DNA sample for elimination purposes I will be thinking very carefully before I do so....
For those who say 'if you have done nothing wrong you have nothing to fear'. What went wrong here then?
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