Brown defiant on controversy over retention of DNA profiles

The Prime Minister warned Jeremiah Sheridan – convicted of the offence 17 years after the event – would not have been brought to justice if a sample taken when he was arrested for a public order offence had not been taken.

His defiant stance – after a European Court ruled the world's biggest DNA database was breaching human rights by keeping samples from people who had not been convicted – shows he has no plans to heed calls from civil liberties campaigners and political opponents to keep only profiles of those convicted, although the Government has been forced to propose scaling it back.

His comments came in a major speech on crime yesterday in which Mr Brown set out new measures to tackle anti-social behaviour and accused the Conservatives of ramping up the fear of crime by "abusing" statistics and spreading the "fiction" that Britain is a broken society.

He said neighbourhood officers should spend 80 per cent of their time on the beat and repeated a pledge from the Government's policing white paper to give direct legal support to victims of anti-social behaviour.

It was also revealed the Home Office is planning to bring in a national 101 hotline for non-emergencies – promised in 2005 but abandoned in most areas on cost grounds – again.

Turning on the critics of CCTV cameras and the DNA database, Mr Brown said: "Some argue that liberty dictates we should immediately wipe from the DNA database everyone who has been arrested but not convicted of an offence. But if we did this, some sickening crimes would have gone unsolved, and many dangerous criminals would have remained at large."

He raised the case of traveller Sheridan, who was convicted last year of the vicious attack on a woman in her own north Sheffield home in 1991, leaving her with life-threatening injuries.

In 2005 his DNA was taken when he was arrested for a public order offence in Cambridgeshire and two years later a cold case review used new techniques and discovered that the sample taken from Sheridan two years previously matched that taken from the victim as she was treated in hospital in 1991.

He was caught after tip-offs when the case was broadcast on the BBC's Crimewatch UK programme, and was jailed for 16 and a half years. "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," said Mr Brown. "And most of all remember the innocent woman he attacked."

Ironically, it was DNA samples kept by the South Yorkshire force which led to the European Court of Human Rights forcing the Government to revise its database policies when Judges branded policies "blanket and indiscriminate".

Now the Home Office has new proposals which would see adults who are arrested but not convicted of a serious crime having their profiles held for six years, while juveniles who are cleared or not charged with serious crimes will have their data kept for three years, or six if they are aged 16 or 17.

New legislation would be required after the general election to bring about the changes, and in the meantime there has been criticism of the slow speed with which innocent people's DNA profiles are being removed from the national database.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling, who visited Huddersfield yesterday, said Mr Brown had been "muddying the waters" over the storing of DNA, and said the Tories would store it from those arrested for serious or sexual attacks for at least five years, with flexibility to do so for longer if there is good reason.

Meanwhile yesterday it emerged that prisoners who will miss out on early release because a Government scheme was brought to an end

are being advised to apply for another scheme to avoid "disappointment".

Last week Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced End of Custody Licence, which allows inmates out up to 18 days

early, would be cancelled next month.

But a circular sent to jails in England and Wales advises inmates to apply for release under Home Detention Curfew, which allows prisoners out up to four and a half months early with an electronic tag. The notice even sympathises with inmates who find they cannot now be released on ECL.

The Tories accused the Government of a "cynical and dishonest ploy" weeks before an election.

What parties say on crime

Labour

Promise funding so police forces do not have to cut officers

More technology and cuts in police red tape so officers spend more time on beat

Conservatives

Strengthen stop and search powers to tackle knife crime, with mobile knife scanners on streets

Use grounding orders to tackle anti-social behaviour

Liberal Democrats

3,000 extra police officers, and annual fitness checks for officers

Elected police authorities able to sack and hire chief constables