As the father of an 11 year old son and two younger children, the news of the death of Rory Blackhall shocked me.
I can’t imagine how his parents must feel and my heart goes out to them. I hope that they catch the person responsible and fast. Once they do, that person should be put on public show before being put to death by the most painful process possible. (This should go for anyone who takes a life, but taking the life of a child just makes me even more angry).
I know it is controversial, but it is about time that we created a national database of DNA samples. Start off by collecting a DNA sample at birth of all new born’s, start collecting samples from anyone in prison, or about to be released from prison. Take samples from those awaiting trial, or under suspect. Take samples from anyone visiting their doctor, hospital, dentist, optician. And don’t stop taking samples until we have the whole UK on file. And if you want to visit the UK, you have to provide a sample on entry to the country.
Ok, there are going to be the people who say it is an infringement of my human rights to have that sort of information stored about me? What rubbish!
The only real problem would be the possible misuse of that information. (Selling it to companies for profiling or some other reason).
Can you imagine the effect on crime it would have? It would not prevent all crimes from being permitted but it would allow the identification of those responsible much faster and using less resources than at present. It could prevent repeat offenders from committing multiple offences. Most crime scenes would contain some DNA sample from the offender and with a National Database it would also act as a great deterrent.
What do I have to lose? Nothing. What do I have to gain? Everything.
The pros far out way the cons and I really hope that in future these sort of steps are taken. I don’t think it would ever happen in mine or my kids lifetime. It may not have prevented the tragic death of Rory Blackhall but it may have helped to quickly identify that offender.
Yeah yeah, there are going to be loads of you who will complain about this post but I don’t give a damn about your thoughts. You are entitled to them and I respect them, but my thoughts and fears are for my own children and family. Whatever I can do to make them safe I would do at any cost, so losing a little of my confidentiality is small cost to enable that.
Once again, my thoughts and prayers to the family and friends of Rory Blackhall.
