THE profile of DNA taken from a used condom found near the scene of an alleged rape of a woman working as a prostitute in 1994 matched the accused man's DNA profile, a forensic scientist told the Central Criminal Court.
Dr Maureen Smyth, head of the biology section of the Forensic Science Laboratory, said she had estimated the chance of this DNA profile occurring in the population at one in eight million.
However, taking into account that the accused was a traveller "and that group had higher rates of intermarriage, the statistic was reduced to one in 200,000.
The doctor described how she extracted DNA from the accused man's hair. Following tests, the profile of this DNA sample matched the profile of DNA extracted from semen in a condom which was found during the second search of the alleged rape scene in the Wicklow Mountains on January 4th, 1995.
The accused man's DNA did not match DNA extracted from a condom found during the initial search on December 30th, 1994. But the DNA from this condom did match semen found on the alleged victim's blouse. The identity of this DNA had not been ascertained.
She was also unable, she said, to make a connection between the accused and other exhibits gardai claimed to have found in this first search. No connection had been made between the alleged victim's clothes and the accused man's DNA profile.
In reply to Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC, defending, Dr Smyth said DNA profiling should not be considered a form of "genetic fingerprinting". The use of DNA testing in criminal investigations was a relatively new field which had been used in Britain for about 10 years.
In Ireland, such work had originally been carried out by a British company but in recent years the work had been done in the forensic laboratory at Garda headquarters.
Dr Smyth estimated that 30 per cent of suspects were eliminated from investigations on the basis of the DNA work carried out by the laboratory.
She was giving evidence on day 13 of the trial of a 36 year old man who has pleaded not guilty to falsely imprisoning a mother of two when she was working as a prostitute on December 29th-30th, 1994, and raping and sexually assaulting her in the Wicklow Mountains.
The head of the chemistry section of the laboratory, Dr Shiela Willis, told Mr Pat O'Connell, prosecuting, she examined the alleged victim's clothing and found 20 fibres which matched fibres of the accused man's jacket.
Another 22 cotton fibres recovered from the backseat of the accused man's car matched samples of the alleged victim's clothes. A hair taken from the car also matched a control sample of the alleged victim's hair.
Dr Willis said her findings "very strongly" supported contact between the alleged victim and the accused man's jacket. Her findings also "strongly" supported contact between the woman's clothes and the accused man's car.
Cross examined by Mr O'Carroll, Dr Willis agreed her findings were not conclusive and trace evidence was never considered conclusive.
The trial continues.