See the evidence the first inquiry missed

Serious forensic blunders in the Damilola Taylor murder investigation have triggered an independent inquiry and forced police to re-examine other cases to see if similar mistakes were made

The Government has ordered the probe after two scientists at the Forensic Science Service (FSS), a Home Office agency, missed Damilola’s bloodstains - one of which was clearly visible to the human eye - on the trainers and sweatshirts of two suspects during the initial police investigation.

Two brothers, Danny and Ricky Preddie, were finally found guilty today of killing Damilola, 10, in South London in November 2000, on the basis of new forensic evidence that was missed during the first investigation.

The brothers had been among the first to be arrested in the days after Damilola’s death, but they were released and the inquiry moved elsewhere after the news there was no forensic evidence linking them to the crime.

The bloodstains were only discovered when a new investigating officer decided to re-examine all the available evidence, after the collapse and acquittal of four youths following a botched trial in 2002.

"We can only go where the evidence appears to take us," said John Yates, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Met.

The court heard that Sian Hedges, a scientist, and Owen Gayle, a supervisor at the FSS, were unable to explain how they came to miss the evidence during Kastle-Meyer tests, chemical tests used to detect blood. While positive results are double checked, no one re-examines negative tests.

So startling were the mistakes that London’s Metropolitan Police and other forces across the country that used the FSS are now having to go over old cases to see if other such errors had been made.

"We have looked at some cases," Yates said. "We are looking at possible cases where there may be implications. Clearly things were missed in the first investigation."

He said the cases would include both those that had failed to reach court and those where suspects had been acquitted, requiring them to be submitted to the Court of Appeal for a possible re-trial.

Joan Ryan, a Home Office Minister, said that an independent inquiry would be carried out into what had happened at the FSS.

"The Board of the Forensic Science Service Ltd is in full agreement with this decision," Mr Ryan said in a statement. "The review will be led by a QC (senior lawyer) and leading forensic scientist and will report in the autumn."

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