Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Act 2000 - NSW Ombudsman - NSW ...

Case Study 68
Four young people left a nightclub in a small country town just after midnight. A man walked towards them,
yelling and swearing, and pushed one of the young people. The young people walked around the corner and
called a taxi. The man was joined by two others, who followed the group around the corner and took their shirts
off. One of them ran at the young man he had pushed, and punched him in the jaw. One of his companions
tackled one of the young people and kicked and punched him while he was on the ground. Police attended
the scene and took the four young people to hospital for treatment, and photographed their injuries. A short
time later police stopped the others involved in the fight outside the nightclub. There was a red substance,
which appeared to be blood, on the boot of one of the suspects, and took the boots for DNA testing. Police
subsequently took a DNA sample from the victim, who alleged he had been kicked by the suspect during the
assault. DAL confirmed that the DNA profile derived from the blood found on the suspect’s boot matched the
victim’s DNA profile. The suspect was charged with the assault and was subsequently convicted. 953
Case Study 69
A man alleged he had been stabbed outside a service station by his partner. She admitted being at the crime
scene and arguing with the victim. She said she had punched him in the chest but denied stabbing him,
telling investigating police that she believed he had subsequently inflicted the would himself. Police seized
her clothes, which had blood spattering on them, and took a DNA sample from the victim. DAL found that the
blood on the suspect’s clothes was indeed from the victim, and the suspect was convicted. 954
We asked DAL how many warm links were made, by offence type, each month during the review period. DAL advised
that when the Act commenced, it recorded warm links within individual case records. It did not otherwise record them
and so has no central record of warm links from that period. For this reason, DAL was unable to advise the number
of links made each month, or the number of links made in the investigation of different types of offences. However,
it estimated that it has made 3,170 warm links during the review period. We understand that DAL now records warm
links on LIMS.
DAL reports warm links directly to the investigating police officer or police station. NSW Police does not have any way
of centrally recording the number or details of warm links advised by DAL.
10.6.2. Cold links
A cold link is a link between the DNA of a suspect or convicted offender and DNA obtained from an unsolved crime
scene, made when the second profile (whether the person sample or the crime scene sample) is loaded onto the
database. The term cold link generally refers to links where the person linked to the crime had not previously been
identified as a suspect.
Case Study 70
An unknown person broke into a house through the rear bedroom window, and stole various items belonging
to the residents. On returning, one of the residents noticed that the lid was missing from a bottle of coke which
they had left, with the lid on, in the fridge. A scene of crime officer examined the scene for fingerprints, and
took swabs from the coke bottle. DAL obtained a DNA profile from the swab, and uploaded it onto the DNA
database. It matched the profile of a person whose profile was already on the database. Police arrested the
suspect, and took a further buccal swab to confirm the cold link. The suspect was then charged with
the offence. 955
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NSW Ombudsman
DNA sampling and other forensic procedures conducted on suspects and volunteers under the Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Act 2000