1,300 innocent people on Gloucestershire Police DNA Database since EU Court ruling

4.10.00pm GMT Thu 21st Jan 2010

Liberal Democrats have discovered that 1,300 innocent people from Gloucestershire have had their DNA records added to the police DNA database since December 2008, when the European Court of Human Rights said the practice was illegal.

Yesterday, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Gloucester, Cllr. Jeremy Hilton, challenged the Tory chairman of Gloucestershire Police Authority to condemn the practice of storing the DNA records of innocent people.

Jeremy Hilton said:

"In total Gloucestershire Police holds the DNA records of 10,000 innocent people and since the EU Court ruling no records have been removed. Instead, our own police force has been adding the DNA records of four innocent people per day.

"I asked the chairman to agree with me that government policy is a shambles and that the police should remove the DNA records of all innocent people. He failed to agree with me.

"The Labour government's cynical proposal to hold on to the DNA of innocent people for up six years, as a way round the EU Court ruling, is a disgrace.

"This is a gross distortion of the fundamental principles of this country - that you are innocent until proven guilty."

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