Semen sniffing dog brought in by Cheshire Police

April is one of three specialist dogs in the UK

A police dog who can detect seminal fluid has been welcomed to the Cheshire and North Wales Police Dog Unit.

Golden Labrador April qualified as a sexual crime scene Police Dog (PD) following six weeks of training from specialist officer PC Steve Gunn.

She is now one of just three dogs in the UK specially trained to only detect seminal fluid.

Her training was part of a successful forensic search dog project originally pioneered by Derbyshire Police.

It was hoped the use of the specialist dog would help put more sexual offenders behind bars.

The 15-month-old pooch can detect as little as 0.016ml of seminal fluid, sometimes years after it has been deposited, the force said.

Within 36 hours of the returning from their training, PC Gunn and PD April were put to the test operationally after being requested to assist with the examination of a scene in Cheshire, which required April's skills.

Ch Insp Simon Newell said: "It shows how the skills of the dogs and their handlers play a vitally important role during sexual offence investigations, in scenes where traditional methods wouldn't work."

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Lead trainer, PC Dean Allen, added: "The dogs can indicate the presence of seminal fluid in places traditional kits can't detect it. Once they've identified the scent, that piece of material or vegetation can be sent away and the extracted DNA profiled, leading to more prosecutions.

"The result is we can catch sexual offenders that we may not have been able to otherwise."

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