Residents in Radnage and the surrounding areas could all have their DNA tested as part of a mass-screening, as police investigating the Janet Brown murder from 1995 put the neighbourhood under the microscope.

At the time of the killing, detectives said they thought it was possible the attacker could have lived locally, and possibly even have known the victim.

Police refused to rule this possibility out yesterday and said they will be looking to screen people who were spoken to as part of the initial investigation – and could possibly screen all other villagers to eliminate certain residents.

Peter Beirne said: “What we will be doing is we will be looking at people who featured in the investigation, visiting those people, asking them for mouth swabs.

“Potentially, and it’s no more than that, something to be considered is doing a mass-screening of the area, but that is sometime in the future, I don’t envisage doing that this year.”

Asked how they would test such a large amount of people, he said: “We will do them in tranches, initially 20 people and once those people have been eliminated, if they are eliminated, we will move onto the next tranche.

“We are fortunate in that in cases like this we invariably get the help and assistance of the public.

“If someone declines to give their DNA it will potentially raise suspicions in relation to why they don’t want to give it and there reasons for not giving it will be looked into and evaluated.”