IN the wake of the recent horrific attack in a secluded lane in York in broad daylight, and the unsolved murder in Haxby nine years ago, surely it has occurred to our Government that a national DNA database of every person resident in Britain would not only deter crime, but if a person was so evil to still commit such heinous acts they would be picked up in quick time.

If every baby born in the future had their DNA recorded as a matter of course this would be a valuable tool in the police handbook of detection.

In the meantime everyone else would submit their DNA voluntarily.

No doubt the human rights brigade would cry we cannot have something like that.

R Waite,

Windmill Rise,

Holgate, York.

Updated: 10:57 Thursday, August 11, 2005