Police records loss ‘could let rapists slip net’
THE LOSS of more than 400,000 records from the Police National Computer is a “disaster” that could see rapists and burglars slip the net, a retired police officer has said.
It emerged yesterday that at least 400,000 pieces of information had been wrongly deleted from the Home Officecontrolled database that is vital to policing the country.
These are thought to include 213,000 offence records, 15,000 person records and details of 175,000 arrests.
About 30,000 records concerning suspects’ fingerprints and 26,000 about DNA are also thought to have vanished.
It was during a purge of information which had to be removed that new coding set off a series of further deletions that should not have happened.
Dave Mckelvey, a retired Met
Police DCI turned private investigator, said: “This is a policing disaster of gargantuan proportions. The first question to ask is why did they not have a back-up so if the wrong data was deleted it could be easily restored?
“If they have lost DNA records as well then how many burglars and rapists could potentially never be caught?”
Last night Priti Patel said the data was lost due to “human
PRESSURE: Keir Starmer has said Priti Patel should take responsibility error” and thanked engineers for working throughout the weekend to try to retrieve it.
A review had identified the problem and corrected it so it cannot happen again.
The Home Secretary said: “Public safety is the number one priority of everyone within the Home Office, and I would like to thank the data engineers working to restore these records.”
Sir Keir Starmer called for her to be in Parliament tomorrow and said: “We need the Home Secretary to take responsibility herself for this.”
A retired special branch detective, who would not be named, said it was unlikely actual DNA records were lost as they are held separately on the National DNA database. However, the PNC should flag up who has had a DNA sample taken with its unique barcode.
He said it was important to know exactly which “datasets” of information had been lost.
FOOTBALLER’S wife Rebekah Vardy has told how being in Dancing on Ice has brought back happy childhood memories.
The mother of five, who has spoken in the past about being a victim of sexual abuse from the age of 12, says that skating during lockdown has revived memories of when her father took her on the ice as a child.
She also spoke of homeschooling – revealing her England football star husband Jamie is a whizz in the classroom.
Rebekah, 38, opened up about her traumatic childhood last year in a social media post revealing that at 15 she had to leave home and that her childhood was taken away.
Now, on the day the TV contest begins, she said: “Skating was always a happy time. It was a happy place with my sister and my dad. It only brings back great memories. Dad is really looking forward to seeing it.”
Rebekah and Jamie, 34, wed in 2016 and have three children together. Speaking of their homeschooling efforts, Rebekah said: “Jamie is strict in terms of maths. He has a fantastic brain for numbers. I’m really good with English. We’ve both got our strengths. I’ve got my weaknesses – I don’t think Jamie has any weaknesses. I wear pyjamas pretty much every day unless I go training.”
Last week she admitted she almost fainted when she accidentally sliced professional partner
Andy Buchanan’s face with her skates.
Fellow contestant Denise van Outen, 46, told how she will be making the most of her chance to wear skimpy gear. She said: “I am the oldest woman in the group so I’m doing it for the over 40s and I’m like, ‘Well, I’ve got to try to look half decent’.”
JIVE: Rebekah Vardy with dance partner Andy Buchanan. Left, with dad Carlos Miranda