1,300 innocent people on Gloucestershire Police DNA Database since EU Court ruling

9.18.00am GMT Sun 7th Feb 2010

The Liberal Democrats have discovered that 1,300 innocent people from Gloucestershire have had their DNA records added to the police DNA database since December 2008, when the European Court of Human Rights said the practice was illegal.

Gloucestershire Liberal Democrats have challenged the Tory chairman of Gloucestershire Police Authority to condemn the practice of storing the DNA records of innocent people.

Chris Coleman said:

"In total Gloucestershire Police holds the DNA records of 10,000 innocent people and since the EU Court ruling no records have been removed. Instead, our own police force has been adding the DNA records of four innocent people per day.

"My colleague Jeremy Hilton who is our Prospective MP for Gloucester, has asked the chairman to agree with him that government policy is a shambles and that the police should remove the DNA records of all innocent people. He failed to agree with Jeremy.

"The Labour government's cynical proposal to hold on to the DNA of innocent people for up six years, as a way round the EU Court ruling, is a disgrace.

"This is a gross distortion of a fundamental principle of the Justice System in our country - that you are innocent until proven guilty."