Colin Pitchfork Was the First Killer Caught Using DNA Profiling
Colin Pitchfork became the first person convicted using DNA evidence in 1988, after being caught when a coworker revealed he had someone else submit a DNA sample on his behalf during a mass screening.
In 1988 Colin Pitchfork admitted two murders in Leicestershire, England, in the first criminal case solved with DNA profiling. He was caught after it came out that a coworker had given a blood sample in his place.
Explanation
Two teenage girls were murdered near the villages of Narborough and Enderby in Leicestershire, one in 1983 and one in 1986. Police asked Alec Jeffreys, who had developed DNA fingerprinting at the nearby University of Leicester, to test samples from both crimes. His results showed that a young man who had confessed to the second murder could not have committed it.
Police then asked around 5,000 local men to give blood samples. Pitchfork persuaded a coworker, Ian Kelly, to give a sample in his name. Kelly later talked about it, another coworker reported it, and Pitchfork was arrested. His DNA matched the samples from the crime scenes, and he pleaded guilty.
The case showed for the first time that DNA could both clear an innocent suspect and identify the guilty one.
Source and verification
- Source
- Wikipedia: DNA profiling Tier B
- Last verified
- Confidence
- 75 out of 100
- Verified by
- Ali Ahmad Chaudhry