One of the commissioners probing the handling of serious crimes on the Island yesterday demanded to know why so few cases were prosecuted with the use of DNA.

Former British deputy chief constable Don Dovaston, who has extensive knowledge in forensic work, accused Bermuda's Scenes of Crime officers (SOCO) of providing a "patchy'' service to the community and said too often it seemed to be working without the use of new scientific techniques.

Bermuda's head of the SOCO department, Detective Inspector Donald Cutts yesterday took to the stand at the hearing of The Commission of Inquiry into Serious Crimes. There he admitted failing to keep a record of DNA samples that were sent away for testing, or their return, claiming he did not see a reason to.

And he claimed, despite other Police witnesses stating a delay in the return of DNA samples of up to six to nine months, they were, in fact, always returned within a matter of weeks.

Det. Insp Cutts revealed many uniformed officers in the force failed to take finger-prints of arrested suspects, even though they were supposed to and despite several complaints by him to various high-ranking officers, including Commissioner Jean-Jacques Lemay.

And he said the majority of cases were proven to be successful because of finger- and footprints, instead of DNA.

He said officers aimed to match the prints with prints already taken from known criminals, despite the fact that only a percentage of convicts have previously had their prints taken and new offenders were constantly coming onto the scene.

Mr. Dovaston said: "You are very specific about footprints and fingerprints, but you fail to mention DNA.

"Why are you not finding more DNA at the scenes of your crimes in Bermuda?'' To which the detective said the DNA was not there.

But Mr. Dovaston continued: "So how is it that crimes in Bermuda are not leaving traces of DNA by the defendant? "The inference is that criminals in Bermuda are so well aware of DNA that they are not leaving their samples behind.'' "In the UK thousands of cases have been prosecuted with the use of DNA.'' During his testimony yesterday, Det. Insp. Cutts also revealed that scenes of burglaries in Bermuda were never searched for DNA samples because of the cost involved.

Instead, foot- and fingerprints were taken. If they were not found at the scene of burglaries, then he said it was more or less the end of the investigation.

Det. Insp Cutts also said with such a small team of people, who were not based centrally but instead near to the airport, they were often unable to get to scenes of crimes quickly.

Mr. Dovaston said: "So the service you are giving to scenes of crimes across Bermuda is a bit patchy.

Mr. Cutts, who was accused of "jumping on the defensive'' throughout his testimony, at first denied the SOCO service was patchy, saying he was very proud of his unit, but then agreed with the commissioner.

The witness took with him to the hearing a copy of a document he has given to his SOCO staff outlining how evidence should be collected.

He said his document, written in 1992, had been interpreted from British Home Office material.

But the commission deemed the document to be only an interpretation of Home Office material, and said it was out of date and lacking new scientific material.

Mr. Dovaston also said written guidelines given to officers in Det. Insp.

Cutts' department did not include details about how scenes of crimes could be contaminated by the careless actions of officers.

Chairman of the hearing, Justice Stanley Moore, said to Mr. Cutts: "Ought you in the year 2000, in a field of science, when asked to produce to the commission the document on which you reply, produce a document dated 1992?'' The detective did not reply, despite several promptings.

He later said that he accepted the document was old, but said there were many detection techniques in it that remained in wide use.

Bermudian lawyer Shirley Simmons, who is also one of the commissioners, asked the detective about his involvement in the search for clues in the Middleton case. At that time he held the same position.

She said soon after the launch of the investigation pictures were released in the media of young Police cadets walking around the scenes of crime area.

The detective told the hearing that they were used as part of the search team during that particular case.

Ms Simmons added: "Are you satisfied that through the search parties used, the information your department needed was being collected?'' To which the detective responded "yes''.

The witness said he was aware that his department had limited capabilities because of the infrequency of serious crime on the Island and the lack of equipment, so he regularly called in outside expertise.

This was done, he added, as soon as he was sure his team could proceed no further -- sometimes within a couple of days.

The detective's testimony is to be sent, in full, to Commissioner Mr. Lemay, so he can read about the concerns over the taking of fingerprints.

MURDER MUR CRIME CRM