The clothes that captured a killer

Det Sgt Doug Utting with the clothes that were used

The clothes that schoolgirl Marion Crofts was wearing on the day she was murdered have been carefully preserved for two decades.

Although plain and ordinary looking, they held the key to a brutal rape and murder which remained unsolved for almost 21 years.

The sock, jeans and jacket contained vital DNA evidence which was responsible for trapping the 14-year-old's killer.

Marion was attacked as she cycled along a canal path from her home in Fleet, Hampshire, to band practice at Wavell School, North Camp, Farnborough on 6 June 1981.

DNA profile

It was not until 1999 that the Forensic Science Service (FSS) developed technology to enable its scientists to find a full DNA profile of Marion's killer.

This led to the start of Operation Vortex where men originally questioned back in 1981 were asked for samples of their DNA taken from swabs in the mouth.

By August 2001, the police had taken 850 mouth swabs from people living around the country and as far afield as America and Australia.

Detective Sergeant Paul Clements said: "It was necessary to determine who could be eliminated by virtue of the DNA swab process."

By August 23, 2001, the detectives had eliminated thousands of suspects, had taken 3,321 statements, and were due to wind up the inquiry once again, after finding no DNA matches.

But that same day a match to the DNA extracted from the 1981 samples was found.

It came from Tony Jasinskyj, who had been arrested four months earlier on suspicion of assaulting his second wife, Michelle. He had given a mouth swab as part of the routine police inquiry.

'Shining example'

This was checked against the national DNA database and the match was found.

Jasinskyj was arrested on September 3, 2001.

The quality of the DNA match was so good that the chance of somebody unrelated to Jasinskyj having that DNA profile was one in a billion.

Dr Jonathan Whitaker, who carried out the DNA tests for the FSS, said: "This is a shining example of how forensic technology and DNA intelligence, in partnership with dedicated policing, can effectively progress the investigation into one of the most complicated and serious undetected crimes spanning two decades."