Crucial DNA test nails criminals
IT was a DNA test proving Bennett was Daisy’s biological father that was crucial to bringing him to justice.
Now genetic evidence is helping police make more and more breakthroughs in sex attack cases.
DNA testing was used to convict a rapist for the first time in the US in 1987 after traces of Orlando serial rapist Tommie Lee Andrews’ semen were found at crime scenes.
Colin Pitchfork was the first British murderer to be convicted using DNA evidence.
He killed Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth, both 15, in Leicestershire in the 1980s.
As part of the police probe, 5,000 men living near where the girls were last seen were asked to provide saliva samples. This led to Pitchfork, now up for release, getting 33 years after a trial in 1988.
Pioneering DNA testing was also used to convict Ian Simms of the murder of 22-year-old Helen McCourt, from Billinge, Merseyside, the following year.
This case marked the first time prosecutors were able to rely on DNA evidence to convict a murderer in the absence of a body, as traces of Helen’s blood were found in Simms’ flat and car.