Landmark DNA ruling hits British law

Europe’s top human rights court ruled yesterday that storing DNA from people with no criminal record is in breach of their rights — a landmark decision that could force Britain to destroy samples of nearly one million people on its database.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that keeping samples was in violation of people’s right to a private life, a protection under the Human Rights Convention, which Britain is a signatory of.

The ruling is final though Britain has until March to either destroy the DNA samples or make a case on why some samples — such as people who have been repeatedly accused but not charged with sexual offences, assaults or terrorism — should be kept.

In England and Wales, more than 850,000 DNA samples from people with no criminal record are on the national database. Samples include people who have been detained and released, acquitted of crimes and victims of violent crimes.

Britain has one of the world’s largest DNA databases with more than 4.5 million samples.

The complaint was brought to the human rights court by Britons Michael Marper and a teenager named as “S”, because he is a juvenile.

Both were arrested in 2001 — Marper for harassing his partner and “S” for attempted robbery — but the charges were dropped.

The two, whose cases were unrelated, appealed to the police to have their DNA and fingerprints removed from the database.

South Yorkshire Police refused. The men then appealed to the House of Lords, which ruled keeping the data was legal under the Criminal Justice and Police Act and did not breach human rights.

“It’s a fantastic result after a seven-year, hard-fought battle,” said Peter Mahy, a lawyer representing Marper and the teenager. “The next step is making sure their samples are destroyed, a process I think we’d like to watch.”

The court based in Strasbourg, also ordered British authorities to pay €42,000 to both men for legal fees.

The court’s rulings are binding on all EU states.

Human rights advocates have long said keeping DNA of innocent people is a disproportionate privacy violation when compared with the numbers of cases solved using DNA.

“Forty percent of Britain’s criminals are not on this database, but hundreds of thousands of innocent people are,” said Anna Fairclough, of the rights group, Liberty. “Sweeping up the innocent with the guilty does not help fight crime.”

However, police have pointed to recent cases solved by use of DNA.

A man charged with murdering five prostitutes in a series of slayings two years ago was convicted with DNA evidence found on victims’ bodies.

The core complaint to the European court centred on the retention of DNA — not collecting it. Judges ruled unanimously there had been a violation of the Human Rights Convention’s Article 8 — the right to respect for private and family life.