Dandruff DNA nets robber
A man was today jailed for 15 years for carrying out an armed robbery 11 years ago after dandruff linked him directly to the crime.
Andrew Pearson, 40, of Gipsyville, Anlaby Road in Hull, and two other men escaped with £38,000 in cash after raiding a caravan company in the city in June 1993.
But he was only arrested in June this year after a new DNA profiling method was used to analyse 25 flakes of dandruff found in a stocking worn as a mask during the robbery.
They provided an exact match to a swab taken from Pearson's mouth.
The chances of the flakes belonging to anyone else were one billion to one, an expert told Hull Crown Court last week.
Today a jury took 75 minutes to find Pearson guilty of robbery and possession of a firearm.
Judge Michael Murphy QC, told Pearson, who had 76 previous convictions, that criminals would always be brought to justice in the end.
He said: "The criminal justice system doesn't switch itself off and as detection systems become more effective and sophisticated eventually criminal behaviour which they feel they have evaded responsibility for will catch up with them in the end as you are about to find out."
He sentenced Pearson to 12 years for the robbery and a consecutive jail term of three years for possessing a firearm.
Pearson and two other masked men had stormed the Atlas caravan site, where he had once worked, on July 22, 1993.
Two of the robbers were armed with guns and one with a baseball bat.
They bundled a terrified receptionist into an office and rounded up another four members of staff as they demanded cash and made threats to kill.
At one point a gun was fired, shattering a window and injuring one of the petrified workers.
They fled with £38,000 from the raid, which had been planned to coincide with a pay day cash delivery.
They made their getaway in a stolen Vauxhall Cavalier, which was found abandoned near the scene.
Part of a stocking used by Pearson as a mask in the raid was found by police who removed what appeared to be dandruff with sticky tape and the evidence was preserved.
