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A storm broke last night over police plans to check the fingerprints of boys and girls as young as twelve in the hunt for a murderer. The victim was Mrs Dora Smith, an 82-year-old widow, who was found strangled in her ground-floor flat in Blakelaw, Newcastle upon Tyne, on New Year’s Day.

It has proved impossible to eliminate by normal means palm and fingerprints found in the flat.


Today the police propose to start fingerprinting 15,000 people who live in Blakelaw or who are known to have visited the area on New Year’s Eve.


Boys and girls are being included in the check because Mrs Smith was friendly with children.


Mr Tom Litterick, Labour MP for Selly Oak, Birmingham, last night described the police measure as a “dangerous precedent,” he is tabling a Commons question about it for the Home Secretary, Mr Roy Jenkins, to answer.



Mr Jack Dromey, executive chairman of the National Council for Civil Liberties, said in London: “This kind of police initiative brings the day nearer when we may be asked to accept such blanket police techniques as unavoidable.”


“The police should make it very clear that the cooperation of anyone is entirely voluntary.”


Mr Barry Price, Assistant Chief, Constable (crime) for Northumbria, did just that when he announced the plan and, he said, the police were fully satisfied that the local community was fully behind them in the proposed check.


Mr Price gave an “absolute assurance” that the prints would not be used for any purpose other than the murder inquiry.


Officially, the police are entitled to ask anyone for their fingerprints but in the case of juveniles the parents have to be asked first. In cases of refusal, the police can ask for a magistrates’ order to compel the person to give his prints, but only if the person is 14 or older.


With children under 14, the police cannot take fingerprints unless they are volunteered.


The exercise will be monitored by two local cou