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Detectives hoping to make headway in the controversial Kerry Babies case have announced plans to scour the UK’s DNA database, which contains over six million samples. Ireland’s database is far less extensive than the UK’s and consists of just 15,000 samples.

So far attempts to find matches to Baby John’s DNA in Ireland have proved unsuccessful and Gardaí believe there may be a possibility that one or both of his parents moved to the UK in the wake of the tragic murder. They are particularly interested in examining samples from the North as many people moved there from Kerry in the 1980s.

Examining such a huge database should increase the possibility of getting a DNA 'hit' on distant relatives of the people who are Gardaí are looking for.

It is thought that Baby John was just five days old when he was killed.

The infant was found by a jogger at White Strand beach, Cahersiveen, on April 14, 1984. He had been stabbed 28 times and also suffered a horrific spinal injury.