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Capture of evil rapist highlighted by Gordon Brown
THE conviction of a rapist who carried out a sickening attack on a disabled Sheffield woman proves why DNA records should be retained, Gordon Brown has declared.
The Prime Minister used a high profile speech on policing to launch a robust defence of the retention of DNA records from people who are arrested but not charged.
He highlighted the jailing last September for 16-and-a-half years of violent thug Jeremiah Sheridan.
Sheridan, a traveller and door-to-door salesman from Billericay, Essex, brutally raped a 45-year-old woman, who suffers from cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, in the bedroom of her Sheffield home in May 1991.
The 37-year-old was caught following 18 years on the run after officers from South Yorkshire Police's Cold Case review team re-examined their evidence following advances in DNA testing techniques.
Speaking to an audience of police officers in Reading, Mr Brown said: "The next time you hear somebody question the value of retaining DNA profiles from those who have been arrested but not convicted, remember Jeremiah Sheridan.
"And most of all remember the innocent woman he attacked."
Sheridan's past began to catch up with him in 2005 when he was arrested for a public order offence in Cambridgeshire and gave a false name - Dan O'Brien.
He was never charged but his DNA was stored on the National Database and, when South Yorkshire Police re-examined the case, a cross-match with a sample from the scene turned up the Dan O'Brien sample.
When police cross-checked it with fingerprints they discovered Sheridan's true identity.
Mr Brown said: "It proved very difficult to trace Sheridan - but after the case was highlighted on Crimewatch in 2008, South Yorkshire Police got several new leads including one that Sheridan was in Australia. He was arrested on his return at Heathrow airport and, last September, having pleaded guilty, he was sentenced to 16-and-a-half years."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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