THE contamination of the British forensic laboratory used to investigate crimes involving Semtex is worse than has previously been disposed, according to a report on RTE news last night. Both the Home Office and an agency of the Ministry of Defense in Britain dismissed the report as containing nothing new.
On Tuesday the British Home Secretary, Mr Michael Howard, announced an inquiry following the discovery of traces of the Semtex component RDX in the centrifuge machine in the laboratory. It will involve the convictions of up to 12 IRA bombers jailed since 1989.
RTE said the laboratory, at Sevenoaks, Kent, has been contaminated four times since 1991 twice in 1991, once in 1992 and once in 1994. In one instance the RDX was brought into the laboratory on shoes in another, traces of the substance were found on a wristwatch. The lab is located in an MoD installation, Fort Halstead, where military research is ongoing into explosives and, according to RTE, is heavily contaminated with RDX.
The report quoted an unidentified supplier of equipment to the laboratory as saying he had been told he could go no further than the outside rooms of the laboratory as, having crossed the military site, he would be contaminated with traces of explosives.
The story was last night described as "very irresponsible" by a spokeswoman for the Defense Evaluation and Research Agency. Mr Howard, in his statement on Tuesday, had acknowledged that there had been a number of instances of RDX contamination at Fort Halstead since 1989. Those identified had been the only significant incidents since then and it was preposterous to suggest that the site as a whole was "seething with explosives".
She said the two activities on the site explosives research and the forensic laboratory were "kept entirely separate" and there were no grounds for questioning the effect of the quality assurance controls in operation.
The Home Office said the instances of contamination had been identified by the Home Secretary on Tuesday.