A man who murdered an 11-year-old girl more than 30 years ago has finally been jailed — after police traced a DNA sample he had provided for a separate investigation back to the case.

Lesley Molseed was killed in a “frenzied attack” while running an errand for her mother in 1975.

Ronald Castree, a 54-year-old comic book dealer from Oldham, northern England, was found guilty of murdering Lesley Molseed in 1975, the UK’s Press Association reported.

Let me get one emotional response out of the way. This is an instance where I’d support the death penalty.

Castree was jailed for life with a recommendation that he serve at least 30 years behind bars. An innocent man, Stefan Kiszko, wrongly served 16 years in prison for the murder until his release in 1992. Kiszko died as a result of a heart condition the following year.

“You kept quiet whilst an entirely innocent man was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced for this murder,” the judge told Castree. “He served fully 16 years before his conviction was fully set aside, living only a couple of years after his release before he died.”

I don’t doubt we have divergent opinions. There’s a conflict between individual liberty and effectively high standards for justice. I guess that conflict flows logically from a distrust of politicians and bureaucrats. They are what our culture has made them or allows them to be.

I trust the capabilities of sound science to provide the means of advancing the species – which includes criminal justice as in this case. But, I require diligent public oversight to keep the clowns in charge from abusing information derived from the technology.