Landmark DNA Database Ruling Made

A landmark legal ruling could soon force ministers to remove DNA samples of innocent people from the British database.

The European Court of Human Rights (pictured) ruled that two British men should not have had their DNA and fingerprints retained by police. The case was brought by the two men from Sheffield, who were arrested, but never convicted.

Currently, all DNA evidence taken during criminal proceedings in England and Wales is retained, even on acquittal or when charges are dropped.

As a result of the unanimous judgment by 17 senior judges from across Europe, thousands of those samples may have to be destroyed.

The details of around 4.5 million people are currently held, and one in five of them do not have a criminal record.

The judges in the case said keeping this information "could not be regarded as necessary in a democratic society".

One of the men, Michael Marper, was arrested for harassing a partner in 2001, and the case was dropped, while the other - a teenager known only as 'S' - was charged with robbery and later acquitted.

In both cases, police refused to destroy their fingerprints and DNA samples taken when both men were in custody.

Their claims were later thrown out by the House of Lords, after it ruled that under the Criminal Justice and Police Act, it was not breaching their human rights.

However, earlier this year, they went to the European Court of Human Rights and argued that by retaining their DNA profiles, it was discrimination and breached their right to a private life.

The judges ruled the retention of the men's DNA "failed to strike a fair balance between the competing public and private interests", and added the British government had "overstepped any acceptable margin of appreciation in this regard".

The court also ruled "the retention in question constituted a disproportionate interference with the applicants' right to respect for private life and could not be regarded as necessary in a democratic society".

(JM)