DNA database plans for children who 'could become criminals'

Primary school children should be put on the national DNA database if their behaviour suggests they will become criminals, a senior Scotland Yard expert said yesterday.

 

Gary Pugh, the director of forensic science and the new DNA spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers, called for a debate on the measures required to identify future offenders.

He said: "If we have a primary means of identifying people before they offend, then in the long term the benefits of targeting younger people are extremely large.

"We have to find who are possibly going to be the biggest threat to society."

But critics said this was a step towards a police state that would risk stigmatising youngsters who had yet to commit a criminal act.

The details of more than 4.5 million people, including about 150,000 children under the age of 16, are held on the Government's database, making it the largest system of its kind in the world.

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