EVIDENCE in the trial of a woman accused of murdering her elderly neighbour has finished, the jury was told yesterday.
Trial judge Mr Justice Hart told the jury not to draw any conclusions as to their verdict, however, as they had yet to hear speeches from legal counsel and himself, speeches which will start on Monday.
Karen Walsh (45), originally from Galway but who was living on the Dublin Road in Newry, is accused of murdering her next-door neighbour, Maire Rankin (81), on Christmas Day, 2008.
The pensioner was found by her brother-in-law lying naked on her bedroom floor after her family became concerned that she was not answering phonecalls or her front door.
It is the crown’s case that Ms Walsh is linked to the scene, the body of the mother of eight and a crucifix possibly used in the assault by DNA evidence.
The jury heard from prosecution DNA expert Susan Woodroffe that in relation to the DNA profile found on Mrs Rankin’s chin, the probability of someone other than Ms Walsh depositing it there was “less than one in one billion”.
She told prosecuting QC Liam McCollum she could not give a similar statistical analysis for the samples from Mrs Rankin’s breasts or the crucifix because there was not enough DNA obtained.
However, Ms Woodroffe said that of a possible 11 components from Ms Walsh, there were nine on the sample from the left breast, 10 on the right breast and also 10 from the crucifix.
Yesterday the jury heard from Prof Dan Krane, who gave evidence via a live video link-up with Ohio University in the US, saying it was a “matter of significant concern” that statistics could not be given as it rendered the results, in his view, “inconclusive”.
He told the court that while he did not take issue with Ms Woodroffe’s results, “I’m not comfortable in saying that Mrs Walsh cannot be excluded without also saying what fraction of the population would be similarly included.”
The jury has also heard Ms Walsh claim that she repeatedly asked police who called to her house at about 1pm on Christmas Day if her neighbour had been “beaten” because she had seen it reported on teletext that the death was suspicious.
Mr McCollum called rebuttal evidence in that regard and the jury heard from the Ireland editor of the Press Association, Deric Henderson, who said that his report was not issued until 2.31pm that day.
The trial continues.