The Canberra Times
March 13, 2001, Tuesday Edition

Headline:
Police to destroy ACT inmates' DNA
Author: Danielle Cronin


NSW police vowed yesterday to destroy any DNA samples mistakenly taken from ACT offenders in NSW jails.

An ACT Government spokesman said the ACT and NSW Governments were yet to sign an agreement on DNA testing, which meant NSW police could not compel about 130 prisoners, convicted in the ACT but serving their sentences across the border, to supply a mouth swab or hair sample.

A Junee jail inmate, who was sentenced in an ACT court to three years' jail, complained that NSW police threatened to take a DNA sample, using force.

The inmate said in a letter to The Canberra Times, 'I don't know how many ACT prisoners have been DNA tested illegally before I kicked up a fuss. 'I told police, after previously advising management, that I was an ACT prisoner and therefore outside of the scope of NSW law I demanded to be treated as an ACT prisoner. 'Upon hearing this the copper objected and said he'll take the sample by force.' The man, who did not want his name published, said Junee Correctional Centre management later called off DNA tests for ACT prisoners.

A NSW police spokesman said officers would not take DNA samples from ACT prisoners because a cross-border agreement was not in place and authorities, at this stage, had nowhere to store the genetic information.

Samples would be destroyed if any ACT inmates were 'slipping through the cracks', he said. In January, NSW police and corrective services' liaison officers began to collect DNA samples from about 5500 NSW prisoners who had been sentenced to more than five years' jail.

The plan is to compare the collected samples with 15,000 pieces of evidence related to 5000 unsolved crimes.

A NSW Corrective Services spokesman said it would be a 'simple misunderstanding' if NSW police had taken mouth swabs or hair samples from ACT inmates. An ACT Government spokesman said a proposed interstate agreement would allow an Australian Federal Police officer to register a DNA sample order in NSW. A NSW police officer would then take a DNA sample from an ACT prisoner and return it to Canberra.

The ACT Legislative Assembly has already passed the Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Act 2000 which meant police could collect DNA from ACT offenders sentenced to two or more years' jail. Deputy Chief Minister Brendan Smyth said yesterday he supported DNA testing for convicted criminals. DNA was a powerful tool which could exonerate innocent people and help catch criminals, he said.


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