Guernsey-born human rights lawyer Peter Mahy was one of a team arguing a case over retention of DNA at the European Court of Human Rights. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 0520617)

A GUERNSEYMAN took a landmark legal challenge to the highest level of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg yesterday.

Solicitor and civil liberties specialist Peter Mahy, 36, a former Grammar School pupil, has been pursuing two cases in the Grand Chamber that will determine whether fingerprints and DNA samples taken from people who have been acquitted of crimes can be kept by police.

They are being billed as one of the most important human rights cases. There has been strong national and international media interest in the case, which began just days after high-profile murder cases in the UK involving Steve Wright, who killed five prostitutes, and Levi Bellfield, who bludgeoned to death two women.
Both were solved due to DNA matches taken after unrelated offences.