The Age calls for a national forensic dental database

Following news coverage yesterday of evidence given by forensic odontologist Dr Tony Hill at the Coronial Inquest into the death of Mr Matthew Bibby, The Age newspaper has published an editorial today (scroll down past the lead editorial to view) calling for the establishment of a national database of dental records to permit identification of unidentified bodies.

In his evidence to the Inquest, Dr Hill told the court "there is no system to match dental records collected by Victoria Police for missing people with those of unidentified bodies taken to the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine".

He also noted that there is currently "no way to connect any of the 49 unidentified bodies held in Victoria with registered missing people nationwide".

The court was also told that "until recently, the state mortuary did not routinely collect dental records or DNA from all unidentified bodies, which was the case with Mr Bibby's body".

The Coroner is due to hand down his finding on 4 August.