CHARGES HAVE been withdrawn against a rape suspect after a court ruled that DNA samples linking the man to the rape were not taken in accordance with the law.
Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan ruled that mouth swabs taken from a suspect – whose DNA profile on a database linked him to semen found on the victim – could not be used as evidence against him.
The man’s DNA had come up on a Northern Ireland database when gardaí sent DNA from unsolved crimes to the authorities there. Gardaí then arrested the man and took another sample, which linked him again to the 2006 rape.
However, at the beginning of the trial against the man two weeks ago, his defence team argued that rules governing the taking of DNA mouth swabs had not been followed properly when his swabs were taken.
After three days of legal argument in the absence of the jury at the Central Criminal Court, the judge made a short ruling in which he agreed that the taking of the sample did not comply with the 1990 Forensic Evidence Act.
The 1990 law sets out what gardaí must do in order to legally obtain forensic evidence from suspects. This includes telling the suspect why the sample is being taken and explaining to him who authorised the sample.
It is understood that in this case, a form was not filled out completely while the suspect was being held in custody.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Sheehan ruled that the mouth swabs and any DNA resulting from them were inadmissible and could not be used in the trial.
After the ruling was made last week the State withdrew its case and entered a nolle prosequi.
The 32-year-old man was arrested in June 2009 after DNA samples from unsolved crimes were compared to samples held on the Northern Ireland DNA database.
His DNA had been stored on the database because of a previous arrest. This record matched the DNA found on the Dublin rape victim and the man was arrested in prison, where he is serving a sentence for another offence.
Before the charge was withdrawn, the case was opened before a jury and Michael Durack SC, prosecuting, outlined the State’s case. He told the jury that the alleged victim was a drug user who had gone drinking along the canal during the day on August 6th, 2006. After a row with her partner, the woman ended up walking on her own to the sports grounds of Clonliffe College, Drumcondra.
She met a man who was sitting in the uncut, grass and started talking to him. The jury were told that the man then tried to kiss her before pushing her to the ground.
The woman tried to push her attacker off but she was not strong enough. After raping her, the alleged attacker fled. The woman managed to find her way back to the canal where she met friends who called gardaí.
The jury was told she was in a distressed state. She was brought to the Rotunda hospital and swabs were taken for analysis.
No suspects were found until June 2009 when the DNA from the swabs taken from the woman showed up on the UK database.