Parents in dark on cop use of DNA

Baby blood samples accessed by police in murder cases. Bevan Hurley and Sam Sherwood report.

The mother of murdered teenager Jane Furlong was stunned to learn blood samples taken from her daughter at birth were later used by the police to identify her body.

Police are able to seek access to the blood samples of more than two million New Zealanders under ‘‘exceptional circumstances’’, the Sunday Star-Times can reveal.

Officers have used the database to prosecute two homicide cases, including that of Sounds murderer Scott Watson, and to identify the remains of missing persons, and victims of natural disasters.

The data was accessed in the Watson murder trial, when Olivia Hope and Ben Smart’s DNA was retrieved and matched with spots of blood found at the crime scene.

Judith Furlong learned only in the past week that police had used DNA taken from a heel test, also known as a Guthrie test, to identify her daughter Jane, whose body was found buried in sand dunes at Port Waikato in 2012.

Other parents said they were not informed of the possibility that their children’s DNA could be used in criminal investigations.

National screening unit clinical director Dr Jane O’Hallahan said police accessed the Guthrie cards ‘‘as a last resort’’.

She said every request from police was carefully reviewed and the Health Ministry considered the ‘‘individual concerned and the wider public interest in law enforcement and public safety’’.

Figures provided by police showed the blood spot samples were accessed once in 2010 to identify human remains, 13 times in 2011 to identify victims of the Christchurch earthquake, and in two homicide inquiries – both resulting in convictions – after a judge issued a search warrant.

Parents can apply to have the cards containing the blood returned to them. Otherwise, the information is kept and can be used for research.

For Judith Furlong, it felt like another betrayal to find out that a sample from her only daughter had been used by police without her consent or knowledge.

‘‘Forty two years ago they certainly didn’t say they were keeping it. I had no idea.

‘‘It’s invasive because they didn’t inform you of anything.

‘‘I’m gobsmacked by it all, 42 years on and suddenly they’re using it.’’

Scott Watson’s father Chris said he considered the cards ‘‘a DNA database by stealth’’.

Watson said he commissioned a report by a forensic investigator looking at the police investigation, which found police had obtained four Guthrie cards for the case.

‘‘They’ve released the ones that mattered, the Hope and Smart ones, but they’ve also released somebody else’s as well, as a control sample.’’

A police spokeswoman said access to samples was rare and strictly controlled.

The spokeswoman said information was tightly protected by the Privacy Act, the Official Information Act, the Health Information Privacy Code, the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights, and the Human Tissue Act.

Civil rights lawyer Michael Bott said parents had every right to feel aggrieved if they gave consent for the sample to be used for one purpose, only to find out later it had been used for another.

‘‘The police will come back and argue that this is for a very important purpose, we’re identifying a deceased person and something like that.

‘‘The trouble with that is that once you go down that path as a reason for basically over-riding informed-consent provisions, where does it stop?’’