Non-Subscriber Extract
Professor sceptical about DNA technology
31 March 2008
A leading scientist has warned that new DNA technology which may soon be used by forces across the country could lead to innocent people being convicted.
The comments by Prof Allan Jamieson, director of the Forensic Institute in Glasgow, came as ACPO and the Crown Prosecution Service were scheduled to meet this week to discuss bringing in a new system which forensic experts claim could lead to an extra 10,000 suspects eventually being caught.
The computer programme, called DNAboost, is touted as being capable of unravelling mixed samples of blood and other fluids from different people at a crime scene.
A spokesman for the government-owned Forensic Science Service, which developed the technology, said it is a "world first in bringing clarity to a type of sample that was previously uninterpretable".
The FSS also says the system has undergone "stringent internal validation" as well as being independently validated by experts at the University of Edinburgh.
But Prof Jamieson, former head of forensic science at Lothian and Borders Constabulary, said: "The introduction of DNAboost could lead to miscarriages of justice if the information is not used properly."