Database of DNA solved burglaries

The national DNA database system, which was introduced this time last year to target serial offenders, linked one such ‘career criminal’ to burglaries which occurred on the same night at two schools earlier this year.

Dr Sylvia Waldron from the Forensic Science Laboratory told a hearing at Galway District Court that a DNA sample taken from blood found at the scene of one of the burglaries matched a DNA profile stored on the database which belonged to Dominick Starczewski, aged 27, of no fixed abode, and with a former address at Firhouse, Dublin 24.

“There’s less than one in a thousandth millionth chance of finding a similar DNA profile from another person —and even that is quite a conservative figure.