SIMI VALLEY, CA (USA) — Not all great K-9 law enforcement dogs have to be burly German Shepherds with jaws of steel capable of bringing down 300-lb. assailants.  Here's one miniature mutt who showed that pound-for-pound your best value might be in a 10-inch-high fur ball.

In September 2000, "Casper" the Shih-Tzu was credited with rescuing a woman from an assault and brutal rape attempt.  Last Saturday, the Los Angeles Times reported that Casper came back to finish the job by providing incontestable evidence in court that resulted in the conviction of 24-year-old Soum Laykham, the woman's next-door neighbor.

Court records state that on the night of Sep. 22 it was the toy dog's furious barking that alerted the 60-year-old victim to the presence of a man standing in the doorway of her bedroom.  The woman testified that she threw a box at the intruder, grabbed the phone and called 911.  The man knocked the phone out of her hand, struck her in the face and tried to rape her.  Then as the intruder, the woman and her dog struggled, the living room phone rang, and the woman told her attacker that it was the police.  He fled the scene, but not before Casper had left an incriminating mark.

It was a dog hair that convinced the court last week that Laykham was guilty.  Forensic experts were able to match Casper's DNA to hairs that were found on Laykham's trousers following the incident.  DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) matching, also called "genetic fingerprinting", has been widely accepted as conclusive evidence in court cases since the early 90s.  Although dog DNA has only been admitted in court once before (in 1998 when Washington state prosecutors used DNA from a dog to help convict two men of a double homicide in Seattle), the reliability is the same as with human DNA.  In Casper's case, the odds of certainty were estimated to be 230,000,000 to one.

Soon after the crime, investigators had questioned Laykham who matched the woman's description, including a tattoo on his left forearm.  However, the man denied the charges, leaving Sima Valley police without much substantial evidence.  Then dog-minded detectives remembered that there was a second witness present at the scene, a particularly furry one.