Presented by Robert Clark MP		www.robertclark.net

DNA testing facility launched

The Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Bill McGrath, and Chief Commissioner Neil Comrie have launched a new DNA facility at the Victoria Forensic Science Centre designed to assist police in solving crime.

The DNA facility is part of the State Government’s Building Better Facilities program.

Additional molecular biologists and scientific equipment will allow the DNA group to operate in three teams.

Two will be "Operational Teams", dealing with day to day casework from serious crimes where offenders or suspects are known; and one will act as a "Criminal Intelligence Team" to deal with serious unsolved crimes.

"Significant internationally recognised scientific breakthroughs at the Centre, together with advancing DNA techniques overseas, led Victoria Police in 1989 to seek the introduction of legislation to obtain a suspect’s DNA blood sample to assist with the investigation in crime," said Mr Comrie.

"In 1994, the Act was amended to broaden the types of samples taken, from blood to other forensic material such as hair, fingernails, saliva and gunshot residue.

"Gun residue has assisted in the criminal investigation of a number of high-profile murders. In one case, a single hair, the only physical evidence recovered at the crime scene, assisted link an offender to a serious crime," said Mr Comrie.

In 1997 further amendments broadened the crime categories for which samples could be taken, to include all indictable offences. The amendments also included provision to retain samples from criminals convicted of serious offences.

These advances culminated in the need for the larger-scale purpose-built facility just opened.

It is estimated that some 15,000 samples will be DNA profiled in the coming year, around five times the current rate.

The Centre has also developed a software package called Genelink to compare DNA profiles between different crime scenes and between scenes and individuals, whether suspects or convicted offenders.

The benefits of the new technology include:

· The ability for investigators to rapidly eliminate suspects allowing for efficiencies in the investigative process.

· The provision of an early link between cases which identifies serial offences allowing for a rapid re-direction of investigative resources if required.

· Improvement of the likelihood of guilty pleas due to physical evidence.

· Support for victims, allowing them to recover from trauma at an accelerated rate when provided with the knowledge that the offender has been identified and dealt with in the Courts.