DETECTIVES HOPE FOR RAPE CASE LEADS

GARDAÍ are hopeful that the new European laws will help them solve a number of historic crimes, particularly unsolved sexual assaults.

Security sources say there are several hundred unsolved rape or sexual assault cases. In these instances, DNA profiles from the attacker were uploaded to the national database. However, there are hundreds of cases where there has been no match on the system.

Detectives hope that there are some cases where the suspect may now be living elsewhere in Europe and has provided a sam- ple in that country, if they have been arrested or convicted of a crime.

Until now, gardaí could request that Europol and Interpol run DNA samples through its databases. However, this is not as effective as the new Europewide database system.

Gardaí are now expected to run a rape case from the summer of 2016 through the new system.

The attack was carried out in July 2016 in Clondalkin, west Dublin, as a young woman walked home from work in the early hours.

At the time, DNA tests were carried out on three suspects which established that they were not involved.

Detectives also trawled the Garda DNA database – which stores the DNA of convicted criminals – in an attempt to identify a suspect, but there were no matches.

However, the DNA of a male recovered at the scene of the crime can now be compared under the new laws against other specimens from Europe.