DNA Samples Stir Doubts but Police Detectives Find Them Invaluable
By Natasha Robinson,
The Australian
| 09. 29. 2014
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IN inner-city Sydney, a man in his 50s answers an unexpected knock at the front door. It’s the police, carrying a DNA sample kit and some paperwork. A document explains to the man that he has been classified as an untested former offender, empowering the police to collect his DNA.
The document means little to the disability support pensioner, who is illiterate. But he does notice that his name is spelled incorrectly and his date of birth is wrong.
“He explained that he couldn’t read the letter,” says the man’s lawyer, Redfern Legal Service police powers solicitor David Porter. “But we can surmise on the basis of what the police used in their letter that he had never served a sentence for a violent offence.
“It had been a number of years since he had come into contact with police. His last period of imprisonment was 15 years ago.”
This year in NSW alone, hundreds of people have had similar knocks on the door from police officers seeking a sample of their DNA via a mouth swab. It...
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