Craig Harman

Craig Harman – Family DNA link offers crime breakthrough

Pioneering work by the Forensic Science Service (FSS) has provided police with a breakthrough in investigating serious crimes, after the world's first successful prosecution using the technique of familial searching.

The technique enables investigators to trace suspects using the inherited components of DNA, which can be prioritised by using specific parameters such as location and intelligence about the crime.

Nineteen-year-old shop assistant Craig Harman became the first person in the world to be successfully prosecuted in April 2004 using this technique after he admitted killing lorry driver Michael Little by throwing a brick through the windscreen of his cab from a footbridge on the M3 motorway.

Harman, of Frimley, Surrey, had spent the evening of 20 March 2003 drinking with a friend. In the early hours of the morning as the two were making their way home they attempted to steal a Renault Clio. Failing to hotwire the vehicle, they abandoned it and instead picked up a brick each from the garden next door.

As they crossed the nearby footbridge over the M3, Harman and his friend hurled the bricks at the oncoming traffic. One smashed through the windscreen of a lorry, which was being driven by 53-year-old Michael Little from Hornchurch, Essex. A car, which was also travelling on the London-bound motorway, narrowly avoided the second brick.

Mr Little, known as "Micky" to his family and friends, was working a night shift for Ford where he'd worked for nearly 30 years. The brick hit him on the chest, causing heart failure. But before he died, he still managed to bring his truck to a stop on the hard shoulder.

Scientific examination of the first brick provided a mixed DNA profile of Mr Little and another individual. A full DNA profile was obtained from blood found on the Renault Clio. Then, using DNA Low Copy Number - a particularly sensitive DNA technique - scientists were able to show that the partial profile from the brick matched with the full profile from the car, linking the two crimes. The profile was run against the National DNA Database (NDNAD) but no match was found.

Analysis of the ethnic markers of the profile indicated the perpetrator was a white male and details of the crime suggested he was under the age of 35. Believing the killer lived locally, Surrey Police carried out an intelligence-led DNA screen, involving 350 people from the surrounding area who volunteered to give samples, but again no match was found.

It was then decided to use familial searching in the hope of pinpointing a suspect by searching the NDNAD for any individuals who most closely matched the unknown profile. Other parameters were added by limiting the search to white males, aged under 35, living in Surrey or Hampshire.

This produced a list of 25 names. The profile on the top of the list matched the profile from the crime scene in 16 out of 20 areas, a very strong match suggesting the person indicated by the database search was a close relative of the killer.

This information led Surrey Police directly to Craig Harman. He gave a DNA sample which, when processed, gave a profile that matched the one from the crime scene. Following a hearing at the Old Bailey, Harman admitted manslaughter and was sentenced to six years.