I want my DNA back

This letter was prompted by Weekly Guardian articles on Justice and Civil liberties. A bit of unfinished business:


Ian Arundale
Chief Constable, Dyfed Powys Police
PO Box 99, LlangunnorCarmarthen SA31 2PF

Sir

Data Protection: please return or destroy DNA evidence taken from me in Llanelli, Spring 2003

One morning soon after the allied invasion of Iraq I was arrested, with one or two others, in the road outside Colleg Sirgar in Llanelli. I had joined students in a sit-down protest and remained seated when asked by police officers to clear the way.

I was lifted and manhandled. Although I did not resist, my arms were forced up behind my back, thumbs were pressed into the soft space under my ears, and my head banged down on the bonnet of a police car.

After a few hours in the cells, I was charged, then cautioned and released. I cant remember the exact charge, but I was asked if I agreed to a caution on the base of it. To get back to my family, I did, but only on condition that a reference to abusive language and behaviour was deleted.

In the presence of the desk officer, I asked the arresting officer to describe the abusive language and behaviour he accused me of. (This was the man who kept shouting ‘pressure points’ and sticking his thumbs under my ear; he also called me ‘a stupid old man’ and tightened the plastic cuffs until they hurt.) When he was unable to recall any abusive words or gestures I might have used, the desk officer agreed to delete the reference.

At the time, I did not object to the DNA swab and made no formal complaint about the manner of the arrest (as a young man I’d got used to some casual violence, both on the rugby field, and in protests over the Vietnam war). It was only later, when I discovered that the ‘abusive’ passage had not been deleted from the charge, that I felt a real injustice had been done: if I’d known the lies were staying in I would have refused the caution and fought the charge in court.

As it is, I was not convicted and did not accept the charge as given. Innocent of any crime, I ask you to destroy or return any DNA evidence retained by your force and ensure that related computer records are deleted.

I await your response - yours sincerely



David ‘Greg’ Wilkinson (formerly of Graig Fach, Llangennech, Llanelli SA14 8PX)