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Sex offender brought to justice with the help of a new forensic DNA technique

 

02 August 2006

A new forensic technique has been used for the first time ever to help bring a sex offender to justice.

Pendulum list searching, developed by the Forensic Science Service, helped to catch Duncan Edward Turner for a sexual assault in Birmingham in August 2005. He was today given an indeterminate prison sentence and will serve at least two and a half years.

This new intelligence tool, used to help identify the attacker, is able to generate a list of possible DNA profiles from a crime sample, containing DNA from two or more individuals and could be of benefit to up to four percent of all DNA crime scene samples submitted

The sexual assault took place on August 28, 2005. A lone female was walking along a subway between Livery Street and Great Charles Street in Birmingham city centre when she was grabbed around the neck by the offender and forced to the ground.

A pair of sunglasses were recovered from the crime scene. When examined they yielded a mixed DNA profile, meaning that DNA from two or more people was detected in the sample.

The Pendulum List Searching tool was used to try and identify the DNA profiles within the sample. PLS works by postulating a ranked list of 500 possible pairs of profiles that could theoretically make up the mixture. It then speculatively searches a copy of the National DNA Database with all 500 pairs. If any of these theoretical DNA profiles match any sample on the NDNAD the information is passed on to police for further investigation.

In this case a match was found with Duncan Turner. After further police investigation he was arrested and charged and subsequently pleaded guilty to sexual assault.

Kate Jones, deputy senior intelligence analyst at the FSS’s Forensic Intelligence Bureau said: “We are delighted with the result. It is great to know that we can make such contributions to the criminal justice system through advances in DNA techniques and send a clear message to offenders that DNA technology is constantly evolving."