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                            LexisNexisª Academic

                Copyright 2002 Nationwide News Pty Limited
                           Herald Sun(Melbourne)

                        January 23, 2002, Wednesday

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1

LENGTH: 768 words

HEADLINE: JAIL TESTS SNARE 100

BYLINE: KEITH MOOR

BODY:
ALMOST 100 prisoners are to be charged with hundreds of unsolved crimes as a
result of mass DNA testing.

The ultra-modern system has linked them to unsolved murders, rapes,
assaults, robberies, burglaries and other offences.

In most cases, the prisoners were not even suspects for the crimes.

Their DNA profiles were routinely compared with DNA taken from exhibits
gathered at thousands of unsolved crime scenes dating back 40 years.
Fourteen prisoners refused police requests for body samples during the
world-first testing process.

They were held down while blood or saliva was forcibly extracted.

Police Minister Andre Haermeyer said the results vindicated the mass testing
process, which civil libertarians branded a breach of prisoners' rights.

The Herald Sun has discovered:

MORE than 3000 Victorian prisoners have so far been tested and their DNA
profiles have been put on the Victoria Police DNA database.

THE database has

since linked 99 of them with 238 previously unsolved crimes.

IT takes just seconds for the computer to find if the DNA sample matches DNA
found at a crime scene.

MOST matches involved burglaries, but the database also linked prisoners
with three unsolved murders, five rapes and other sex offences, eight
robberies, four assaults, an abduction and 11 car thefts.

ONE prisoner was linked through his DNA to 15 unsolved burglaries.

ANOTHER matched DNA left at the scene of a violent rape in 1989.

Police expect to complete the mass DNA blitz by June. About 1000 prisoners
are still to be tested.

The Herald Sun has been asked not to identify any of the crimes or prisoners
as in most cases charges have not yet been laid.

Police DNA implementation team head Paul Chadwick said a number of prisoners
had admitted offences after being confronted with DNA evidence.

Acting Det Sen-Sgt Chadwick said while he could not predict the outcome of
the investigations into the 238 unsolved crimes, it was reasonable to assume
all 99 prisoners would be charged and probably convicted.

Some of the 99 have been released since being tested, but police know where
they are.

"That would be a normal expectation," he said. "In fact, when confronted
with DNA evidence, many simply admit to it."

Sen-Sgt Chadwick said there had been cases of burglars who couldn't remember
a particular crime, because of being drug-affected at the time, who had told
police "if you have got my DNA then it must be me".

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a genetic code as unique to a person as
fingerprints and is found in blood, body fluids, hair roots, skin and other
cells.

The technology is proving particularly effective at solving burglaries. The
mass testing has so far linked 73 prisoners with 125 thefts.

Acting Assistant Commissioner (crime) Trevor Thompson said he was delighted
with the results.

"The solve rate on burglaries has been fairly low over the years," Mr
Thompson said.

"These latest DNA figures show this is a method by which we will be able to
solve more high-volume crimes, such as house burglaries.

"And that can only be good for the community."

Mr Thompson said police had started investigations into the circumstances
surrounding all 238 crimes and the 99 prisoners linked to them.

Police were able to increase the range of people it can subject to DNA
testing since new legislation in July 1998.

It gave them the power to force the state's 3000 serving prisoners to give
samples and also enabled them to apply for DNA samples from almost every
newly convicted criminal.

The Victoria Police forensic science centre was geared up to increase the
number of DNA samples taken and stored from crime scenes, suspects and
convicted criminals from 2500 to 15,000 a year.

But the mass testing program suffered a setback when a Supreme Court judge
ruled in December 2000 that hundreds of samples already taken had been
illegally obtained.

Most of the orders granting police requests to obtain DNA samples from
prisoners were made by magistrates in their chambers without the prisoners
being present or being told of the applications.

Justice Bill Gillard ruled that although prisoners did not need to be
present, the applications had to be made in public or they would break the
open court provision of the Magistrates Court Act.

The State Government got around this problem by last year introducing the
Crime (Validation of Orders) Bill, which meant the samples already taken
from 1063 prisoners could still be put on the database.

Magistrates and judges now hear police applications for DNA samples in open
court.

LOAD-DATE: January 22, 2002