DNA from a cat snares killer after its hair was found on victim's dismembered body

• David Guy's body parts found wrapped in a curtain on a beach in Southsea
• Forensic scientists discovered the curtain had eight cat hairs on it
• They then used UK's first cat DNA database to analyse hairs
• It found the cat hairs belonged to Tinker which was owned by David Hilder
• Hilder was last month jailed for life for manslaughter
  

By Anthony Bond

Published: 05:28 EST, 14 August 2013 | Updated: 03:12 EST, 15 August 2013

The UK’s first cat DNA database has been set up to help solve criminal investigations – after cat hair was successfully used to trap a killer.

The database, which currently holds records of 152 pets’ DNA, was started after hairs were found on the dismembered body of David Guy.

Mr Guy’s torso was discovered in July 2012 wrapped in a curtain containing eight cat hairs.

Genetic tests suggested they could belong to Tinker, a cat owned by a suspect called David Hilder.

Hampshire police sent the hairs to California for analysis where scientists examined the cat’s DNA.

The results confirmed that Tinker had the same rare genetic code as the hairs found on the body.

Scientists were able to prove that the variety was unusual, by showing that none of the 493 randomly sampled animals in a US cat database shared the same type of DNA.

To help strengthen their case in court, police were keen to know if the result would also be rare in the UK.

They tracked down Dr Jon Wetton – who had created a similar database of UK dogs while working with the Forensic Science Service.

Dr Wetton said: ‘Hampshire police wanted to know the evidential strength of the match. I explained that could only be determined with reference to a database of UK cats – which did not exist at the time.’

The team were able to get 152 samples from a company that analyses blood samples for vets. Only three of the samples matched the hairs from the crime scene.

This confirmed that the DNA type was also rare in the UK, making it easier to prove that the hairs came from the suspect’s cat.

The evidence was presented at Winchester Crown Court as part of the prosecution case that successfully convicted Hilder of manslaughter.

Dr Wetton said: ‘This is the first time cat DNA has been used in a UK criminal trial. We now hope to publish the database so it can be used in future crime investigations.

'This could be a real boon for forensic science, as the 10 million cats in the UK are unwittingly tagging the clothes and furnishings in more than a quarter of households.'

Although the U.S and Canada have used cat hair in crime cases before, the findings have never been collated in one database.

Dr Wetton said: 'Having produced a similar database for dogs during my previous employment with the forensic science service, we proposed creating a cat database from scratch.

'Within each cat hair are two types of DNA, individual-specific "nuclear DNA" detectable in the roots of some larger hairs, and "mitochondrial DNA" which is shared by all maternally-related individuals and can be found even in the finest hair shafts.

'Animal DNA offers a way of linking people to places and items through the transfer of their pets’ hairs.'

Fellow researcher Barbara Ottolini said: 'The police were lucky in this case, as most mitochondrial types are common when tested with the technique we used here.

'We would like to use cutting-edge DNA sequencing methods to identify further variation in cat mitochondrial DNA to maximise the discriminating power of the evidence.'