Sensitive, high-profile case handled carelessly

The DNA testing process can typically take up to 48 hours, say the Forensic Science Laboratory — so it’s a safe bet there was some anxious pacing of corridors and hallways before the results in the Tallaght Roma case came in yesterday afternoon.

The case is not only an extremely sensitive matter, involving the well-being of a child, but it is also high-profile — a rare enough occurrence in circumstances where gardaí have utilised section 12 of the Childcare Act 1991.

That is the provision of the law — implemented in 1995 — under which gardaí took the girl, described as blonde and blue-eyed, from her Roma family in Tallaght on Monday evening.