A GLOBAL DNA database is being developed in response to the failings of international police co-operation exposed in the Caroline Dickinson murder case.
British police, drawing on the lessons learnt from the investigation into Caroline’s death, have been the driving force behind a new Interpol DNA database.
Its establishment is a personal triumph for John Dickinson, Caroline’s father, who has campaigned for police forces around the world to share DNA information. The scheme has just recorded its “first hit” with the detection of a Croatian robbery suspect after the submission of DNA samples by police in Slovenia.
Francisco Arce Montes, 54, the serial sex attacker jailed for 30 years this week for Caroline’s murder, had been arrested in Germany, France and Spain before he killed the 13-year-old schoolgirl in 1996.
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A year after the killing he was detained again in Spain accused of attempted rape. British police sources said they believed Montes had “raped his way around the world” and many of his victims had chosen not to report the assaults to police. He is known to have attacked women and young girls in Europe, South America and the United States.
But it was not until he was arrested in Miami in 2001 and identified by a US immigration officer as the same man wanted for Caroline’s murder that a DNA sample was taken from him. That material provided an identical match to DNA recovered from the murder scene.
Mr Dickinson, 48, said yesterday that the matching of the DNA samples was the key to securing the detention of his daughter’s killer. “It was like looking for a needle in a haystack but DNA evidence was the magnet to extract that needle from the depth of the haystack,” Mr Dickinson, from Bodmin, Cornwall, said.
“If your DNA matches a crime scene then there is no argument. The rest of the world should follow the way the UK has set up its DNA database.” Mr Dickinson is credited with transforming the French approach to DNA evidence. The inquiry into Caroline’s death saw the first mass DNA test in French policing.
The failures of the Caroline inquiry were highlighted by British officers in arguing the case at Interpol for an international DNA scheme. “We used the example of the Caroline Dickinson investigation to push the issue forward,” said Detective Inspector Paul Hodgson, Britain’s representative on Interpol’s DNA experts group.
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“It was a very important case for us to be able to make reference to. Without such a high-profile case it would probably have taken us much longer to convince our partners of the need for an international database and the feasibility of it. The tragic murder of a young girl was powerful ammunition in ensuring we could move this forward.”
Britain is regarded as a world leader in the use of DNA as an investigative tool. There are more than 2.25 million samples on the British database, 3.7 per cent of the population. In 2002 41 Interpol member states operated DNA databases but the number is expanding rapidly.
Britain’s important partners in pioneering the international database are the US, South Africa, Austria, Norway and Belgium.
The working group behind the project, which also includes Argentina, Australia, France and Spain, is educating other countries in how to establish their own national databases.
The international database will collect samples donated by national DNA projects and make them available to investigators around the world. When a match is found the system alerts the countries involved which can then liaise directly.
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A standardised DNA format has been agreed to make certain that samples from around the world are directly comparable with one another. Mr Hodgson said he believed that a fully functioning international database would be in operation in less than ten years.