Research by the Liberal Democrats has revealed that just 10 Welsh people have had their DNA removed from the Government’s controversial database since a European Court ruling that holding details of the innocent was illegal.
This is despite the fact that since the ruling in 2008, the four Welsh police forces have added 23,778 profiles to the database, 4,945 of these have either not been charged with any offences or been acquitted by the courts.
Jenny Willott, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central, said: “It is appalling that Labour have taken the profiles of 5,000 innocent Welshman over the year since they were told the practice is illegal.
“By the time an innocent person in Wales manages to get their DNA removed from the DNA database, 494 other innocent people have been added.
“Despite the Government’s promises to abide by the European Court’s ruling, they are still doing everything they can to avoid it.
“Labour’s cynical proposals will create a half-guilty class of people who have to accept having their most intimate personal information held by the police for 6 years, even though they have done nothing wrong.
“This is a gross distortion of one of the founding laws of our land, that you are innocent until proven guilty.”
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