Home > Colin Pitchfork

1 The crimes

In 1983, a 15-year-old schoolgirl Lynda Mann was raped and murdered in the Narborough area. Using forensic science techniques available at the time, a semen sample taken from her body was found to belong to a person with type A blood and an enzyme profile that matched only 10 per cent of males. With no other leads or evidence, the case was left open.

In 1986 Dawn Ashworth, another 15-year-old, was found strangled and sexually assaulted in the same area. The modus operandi matched that of the first attack, and semen samples revealed the same blood type.

The prime suspect was a local boy, Richard Buckland, who revealed knowledge of Ashworth's body, and admitted the crimeSee crime fiction for a survey of the fictional treatment of crimes and their detection and criminals and their motives. Crime Lake is a lake between Ashton-under-Lyne and Failsworth in Greater Manchester in England. A crime is an act which violates a law under questioning, but denied the first murder. Alec JeffreysSir Alec J. Jeffreys FRS, (born in 1950 at Luton in Bedfordshire) is a British scientist and professor. After graduating at Oxford University, he moved to Leicester University in 1977, where he developed genetic fingerprinting, a technique to distinguish, of the University of LeicesterThe University of Leicester is based in Leicester, England, with about 8,000 full-time students and over 10,000 distance-learning students, one of the larget distance learning populations of any UK university. The main campus is not far away from the city, had recently developed DNA profiling along with Peter GillPeter Gill (born March 8 1964 in Liverpool, England) known by the nickname Pedro or Ped was the drummer with 1980s pop band Frankie Goes To Hollywood (FGTH). He started out as a guitarist but decided to switch instruments because his hands were too small. and Dave Werrett of the Forensic Science Service (FSS) and detailed the technique in a 19851985 is a common year starting on Tuesday. Events January events January 1 Creation of the Internet's Domain Name System. January 17 British Telecom annouces they are going to abolish the famous red telephone boxes. January 23 A debate in the House of Lor paper.

Gill commented:

I was responsible for developing all of the DNA extraction techniques and demonstrating that it was possible after all to obtain DNA profiles from old stains. The biggest achievement was developing the preferential extraction method to separate sperm from vaginal cells – without this method it would have been difficult to use DNA in rape cases.

The profiles of the murderer and Buckland did not match, and Buckland became the first person to be exonerated by DNA fingerprinting.

Jeffries later said:

I have no doubt whatsoever that he would have been found guilty had it not been for DNA evidence. That was a remarkable occurrence.

Later however, a colleague of a man, Ian Kelly, heard him bragging that he had given his sample whilst masquerading as his friend, Colin Pitchfork. Pitchfork, a local baker, was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders in 1988. Since then, DNA fingerprinting has been used to secure many other convictions.