Burglar found through DNA on stone - one year after

French police have found a man who committed nearly 30 burglaries a year ago thanks to traces of DNA left on a stone he used to break in to a house. The Albanian national was already in jail for another crime.

Tony Cross

The 27-year-old has confessed to 20-30 break-ins just outside Paris, mainly in the La Défense business district and the Rueil-Malmaison suburb.

The inquiry began on 11 February 2011 when two houses in Rueil-Malmaison were broken into using the same method of entry, breaking a window by throwing a stone through it.

A mobile phone stolen from one of the houses was found to have been used at a Paris hotel the same evening but the person who used it was not found.

Nearly a year later forensic scientists managed to construct his genetic profile after traces of DNA were found on a stone used in another break-in.

The man had already been identified as a repeat offender who had given police as many as eight different identities.

One of the thefts he had committed was in the hotel where the mobile had been used on the day after the call had been made.

The police did not have to launch a major search operation. The man was already in jail for yet another offence.