Court hears DNA evidence in gang rape case
A jury has heard that DNA evidence led to the arrest of two Wexford men accused of forcing their way into the home of a Waterford mother and taking turns to rape her as she was restrained by a rope around her neck.
A 25-year-old man has pleaded not (NOT) guilty at the Central Criminal Court to two counts of rape and one of anal rape of the woman at her Waterford home on August 31, 2006. His 22-year-old co-accused denies raping her on the same occasion.
Detective Garda John Shorthall told Mr Thomas Creed SC (with Ms Cathleen Noctor BL), prosecuting, that
both men were arrested in September 2007 after DNA samples were taken from them and sent to the forensic laboratory for analysis.
Both accused had been arrested earlier in the year for questioning but had denied the rape.
A doctor who treated the complainant in the sexual assault unit in a Waterford hospital on the day of the alleged rape, told the court that he found horizontal marks on her neck, bruising around her eye, on her right thigh and her hand.
He agreed with Mr Creed that the marks on the woman's neck, which stretched across her throat from ear to ear, were consistent with her description of someone holding a rope around her. He examined her vaginal and anal area and found nothing "abnormal" in their appearance.
Det Gda Shorthall said that in March 2007 confidential information led him and other gardaí to travel to an area in Co Meath to arrest the 22-year-old accused who was then taken to Waterford for interview.
He said when the accused was first asked if he had sex with any woman in Waterford the previous August, he replied: "I don't know".
He refused to go on an identification parade unless his brothers, whom he told gardaí looked like him, were allowed to stand in the line-up with him. He also did not allow the gardaí to take DNA samples from him.
He told the gardaí that, "as far as I know" he did not have sex with any other woman, apart from his wife, around that time.
He denied pushing the complainant into her house, raping her and anally raping her. "She was not raped by me. I don't know anything about any rape," the accused told gardaí.
When asked by gardaí if his DNA would be found inside the complainant, the accused replied "as far as I know it should not".
The accused admitted to availing of the services of a prostitute in England since his marriage but denied ever going to a prostitute in Ireland.
Det Gda Shorthall said the complainant's statement was then read to the accused and he denied being the man identified in that as her attacker.
Det Gda Shorthall told Mr Creed that fingerprints, photographs, mouth swabs and hair samples were then taken from the accused.
The witness told the court that confidential information led to the arrest of the 26-year-old accused for questioning in May 2007.
He consented to the gardaí taking DNA samples but said he would not consent to taking part in an identification parade.
He told gardaí that he did not sell door-to-door with anyone of the same surname as his co-accused because "they were too contrary".
He said he did not have sex with any woman in Waterford at the time and added that he was "100% sure" about that.
The accused denied being the man who held a rope around the complainant's neck, while his accomplice raped her.
He also denied that he had raped the complainant and told gardaí that his DNA would not be found in her.
The trial continues before Mr Justice George Bermingham and a jury of seven men and five women.
