you couldn't make it up

lad from cornwall locked up in strangeways on remand for a rape when he was nowhere near.

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1487848_rape-cases-reopened-after-dna-blunder-locks-up-innocent-man-wrongly-accused-of-blackley-sex-attack

the police, as it is their responsibility, should take full blame and the chief constable should do a stretch to see how it feels like.

This case was built entirely upon the DNA evidence so it would appear that not a whole lot of old school coppering going on.

It was the people at the labs fault Dawg........end of, the Police can't be held responsible for someone elses balls up .

shaken, although the mistake was at the lab, it is the police's responsibility to get it right. they can sue the lab guys, but they are responsible.

It's the people at the labs responsibility to get it right, that's their job.

We could go round in circles here mate

no circles den. the police have the responsibility to do the checks correctly.

how/who they choose is up to them. they can pin the blame on the lab, but the responsibility is theirs.

will they keep the lab on/ask them for compensation as they are now reviewing some old cases that the lab handled?

Have to agree with Den on this one. No matter how many checks the police had done if the DNA comes back that the lad did it, then that evidence would be presented to the CPS & he would have been charged. The DNA would ,. which would normally be something like 100 million to 1 that he didnt was contaminated apparently & this was a clear f*ck up by the lab

it's a moot point lads.

the lab are at fault, there appears no doubt there. it isn't GMP's fault, but it is still their responsibility.

I think the DNA evidence should be the final seal on this matter though.

They should really have a picture of whats gone on before they blindly arrest somebody because of some DNA results.

i agree with moon. you can't blindly go just on the DNA evidence. you should at least have an idea that the lad was in the area to start with

The Forensic Science Service receive the DNA. They do the tests, they produce the results, they pass the results to the Police.

I would suspect that the article isn't entirely true. To cross-contaminate a piece of evidence in a lab is very hard to do.

Normally, more than one sample is sent to the FSS - a test will be conducted on all samples sent. They are very, very thorough with regards to these things - they have rigid SOPs with regards to collecting, signing for, testing of samples....it's what they do and this is the biggest threat to their role.

I can see a contaminated sample being sent from GMP - which through sampling has identified a match - a match that the FSS wouldn't necessarily make unless told about - for impartiality and to ensure no collusion occurs.

So for me - and it's just an opinion - the fault came through the collection process from GMP officers - not the FSS.

I've delved deep into these things in a previous role, many years ago and have spent time with the FSS in Birmingham.

Bollocks

shakencity wrote:Bollocks

Fair enough......like i said Shaken, just my opinion.

Only jokin blue (hence laughing icon), your explanation blew any theories we had out of the water.

Nice work fella, very professional.

shakencity wrote:Only jokin blue (hence laughing icon), your explanation blew any theories we had out of the water.

Nice work fella, very professional.

Sorry mate, didn't mean it to sound a 'sulky' response!! I really don't know WTF has happened, just feel sorry for the poor fella involved.

I try not to take anything any 'blue fan' says as personal...as i said, we all have opinions on things - i was trying to put across what i know of the FSS...but god knows, they could easily have fucked up this sample and caused untold hell on this guy....in which case, somebody MUST be held accountable.........in my industry, we like to say " we don't have a no blame culture (an Americanism) - only a 'just' culture". One where we admit our mistakes, accept responsibility, accept the consequences and learn from it for the future. Over 70% of accidents/laspes/slips are down to human error - but sometimes it's the processes, SOPs or management that are ultimately at fault for creating an opportunity for these things to occur and not having a Safety Management System in place, decent training and a robust auditing and monitoring process thereby creating a TEM (Threat and Error Management) approach to the environment. There...said more than i should have!!