While pressure mounts on murder squad detectives in Bristol England to solve the murder of Joanna Yeates, Bristol police have pooh-poohed a Labour MP’s call for all men living in Bristol to provide DNA samples in an attempt to solve the case.
Kerry McCarthy, Labour MP for Bristol East, said the need to catch Joanna’s killer overrides the questions of intrusion and invasion of privacy in a mass screening. And while a tiny forensic trace of Joanna’s suspected killer is believed to have been recovered by crime scene investigators when her body was found in a remote lane on Christmas Day. This potentially precious clue has left senior officers with the tough decision to launch an expensive and manpower-intensive operation to eliminate all the men living in not only Joanne’s neighbourhood in Clifton, but across the city using the latest DNA techniques
McCarthy was quoted saying: “I understand some people think this is an invasion of their privacy but I think most people would understand that city-wide testing could get the killer off the streets. A lot of people are worried about this person still being on the streets in Bristol and it is important they are caught as soon as possible. It is a massive task to do a DNA swab for the whole of the city but I think if it helps catch the killer it is the right thing to do and people will be happy to do this.”
Although such a call is likely to find instant favour with the “nothing to hide, nothing to fear” brigade, there are many questions both about the effectiveness and the ethics of such an approach.
A spokeswoman for the Avon and Somerset force told El Regthis morning: “The move to DNA swab all men in the Clifton area is not something that Avon and Somerset Police are considering at this moment in time.”
