MORE than 3,000 unsolved sex attacks and rapes in Hampshire are being re-opened, the Daily Echo can reveal.
A specialist team of officers will review cases dating back as far as the 1960s to try and catch some of the county’s most dangerous criminals.
They are hoping the latest forensic techniques, including advances in DNA science, will help finally catch the culprits.
Victims of some of the crimes have already been contacted to inform them fresh investigations are underway.
The cold case review, called Operation Galaxy, is part of a year-long pilot by Hampshire police.
Items from crime scenes, such as clothing, could be sent for forensic testing which was not available at the time of the attacks.
Hampshire police chiefs wanted to get the mammoth review underway before the Government makes a decision on new rules regarding the national DNA database.
More than 4.8 million people are currently on the database but that number could be dramatically cut – by 850,000 – under proposals by the Home Office to remove the DNA profiles of those not convicted at court, after a period of six years.
The plans were drafted following a ruling at the European court of Human Rights in 2008 which said storing innocent people’s DNA was unlawful.
See today's Daily Echo for the full story
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