retention of fingerprints - and public release of information implying guilt.

[Mary Hawking]

I heard on Radio 4 that one of Barak Obama's half-brothers had been 
refused admission to the UK - and that he had been finger-printed and 
questioned over an alleged attempted sexual assault some years ago.
How long are finger-prints retained when it would appear that there was 
some doubt in police minds as to whether an offence had been committed 
in the first place, and is there any control over the public leaking of 
this type of information in a manner that implies guilt like this? After 
all, he could have been finger-printed to show that the suspicious 
prints were *not* his!

Come to that, and quite apart from the leakage of information, is being 
finger-printed when no charge is ever brought or even a crime recorded 
now a reason to bar someone from entering the country, even on a 
temporary basis?

Of course, that might have been associated with one of the documents 
being "forged" - so why bring in the finger-prints?

What is the legal position?

Mary Hawking
-- 
Mary Hawking