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16 October 2020 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied
Kyla Dooley, runner-up in this year’s Three-minute thesis competition, wants to pursue a career working alongside police enforcement, using her knowledge of forensics to solve criminal cases and convict perpetrators.

When rapes and sexual assaults are committed, DNA evidence can play a large role in convicting the offenders. DNA evidence collected from sexual crimes can, according to Kyla Dooley, often be tricky to analyse.

Kyla has just completed her master’s degree, specialising in Forensic Genetics, at the University of the Free State (UFS). She not only thrives in this field – graduating at the top of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences in 2018 when she was awarded the Dean’s Medal – but her work also brought her the runner-up position in this year’s Three-minute thesis competition. 

She talked about her research on the use of male-specific DNA in the analysis of DNA evidence collected after crimes of a sexual nature have been committed.

Explaining her research, Kyla elaborates: “In most cases, the victim is female, while the offender is male. Therefore, the evidence is often a mixture of male and female DNA and this can make it difficult to analyse the male DNA and match it to a male suspect.”

She believes the solution to this is to target male-specific DNA in analysis. “This eliminates all female DNA and simplifies the process,” says Kyla.

“Unfortunately, male-specific DNA technology is not currently used in South Africa, because the DNA regions tested to date haven’t shown much success in distinguishing between males in our population,” Kyla points out.

“The goal is now to use DNA evidence, to match it to a suspect, and have the confidence that it came from him and only him. Or else defence lawyers could argue that it came from someone else in the population,” she says.

Improving DNA evidence

Therefore, Kyla’s research focused on evaluating a new group of male-specific DNA regions, which are to be tested yet, to see if it would be a viable option for use in South Africa. 

“I achieved this by collecting DNA samples from men on campus, processing them to obtain DNA profiles, and then determining how well these regions can distinguish between the men. The results of my research demonstrate the potential of these DNA regions to improve the use of DNA evidence when investigating sexual assaults in South Africa,” says Kyla.

She believes her study can play a role in increasing the conviction rate of sexual offenders, which could lead to a reduction in South Africa’s alarmingly high rape statistic. 

“Everyone in South Africa is affected by this horrific crime in some way or another, so the benefits of this would be widespread,” she says.

Solving crimes

Although Kyla will one day pursue further studies, she is ready for the next stage in her life. “I am in the process of applying for jobs and getting ready to dive into the real world. I’ll definitely be pursuing a career working alongside police enforcement to solve criminal cases and convict perpetrators of such crimes. Working for the NYPD in the USA or Scotland Yard in the UK is the ultimate dream job,” she says.

“I chose my field not only because the forensics world absolutely fascinates me, but also because I want to make a difference. I want to play a role in getting justice for those affected by violent crimes. One simple process in a forensic scientist’s everyday routine could be a life changer for a victim of crime,” believes Kyla.

 

 


News Archive

Law students rated among the top in the world
2007-04-18

The UFS team that competed in the moot arbitration competition in Austria was, front from the left: Sunette Visser and Dee Leboela; back from left: Lucian Companie, Vicky Olivier and Deman Smit.
UFS Law students rated among the top in the world
A team of eight students from the Faculty of Law at the University of the Free State (UFS) has put the university among the top universities in the world when it was ranked 46th out of 177 universities that recently took part in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot competition in Vienna, Austria.

Universities from more than 55 countries took part in the competition and 1 800 arguments were delivered over a period of seven days. The UFS team competed against countries such as Switzerland, Russia, Lapland and France.

The team did exceptionally well in all the arguments and was complimented on oral performance and litigation skills. “In the final round, one of the arbitrators, who is a practising international trade lawyer and arbitrator, said that the team’s oral arguments were of exactly the same standard as that of practising international trade lawyers in real arbitrations,” said Prof. Elizabeth Snyman-Van Deventer, coach of the team and lecturer at the Department of Mercantile Law.

To put the cherry on top, one of the team members, Deman Smit, received an individual oralist award and an honourable mention as one of the best speakers. His score of 138 out of 150 placed him within three (3) points of the international individual winner.

The Dean of the Faculty of Law, Prof. Johan Henning said: “The fact that Deman missed out on receiving the top speaker award by a couple of points is a striking example of the world class students this faculty is delivering. It also shows that the faculty needs not to stand back for law faculties such as those of Harvard, Freiburg, Munchen, Stanford and Sorbonne.”

The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot is an annual competition organised by the Institute of International Commercial Law at the Pace University School of Law in New York, United States of America. The goal of the competition is to foster the study of international commercial law and to train students in methods of alternative dispute resolution.

“The Faculty of Law also sees this competition as part of our development strategy to develop skilled arbitrators for commercial disputes. There is a need in Africa for commercial lawyers to facilitate international trade. This programme is also in line with the development strategies of the African Union,” said Prof. Snyman-Van Deventer.

The UFS team comprised of: Dee Leboela, Smit, Lucien Companie, Vicky Olivier, Sunette Visser, Qaqamba Vellem, Hanno Bekker and Lucy Nthotso.

Media release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt@ufs.ac.za 
18 April 2007
 

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