A defence lawyer yesterday continued his attack on the Garda investigation into the rape and murder of a student as the trial of a Co Galway man reaches its final stages at the Central Criminal Court.
Mr Barry White SC said yesterday the investigation was "one-sided and selective" and forensic fibre evidence which the prosecution say links the accused to the deceased was not objective.
He invited the jury to agree that the girl's death was "a mystery" for which no explanation had been given in the trial.
The 27-year-old accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies the murder of the 17-year-old at a beach in the county on December 6th, 1998. He also denies a charge of rape with an object.
Mr Justice Smith directed the jury to return a not-guilty verdict on a second charge of rape brought by the DPP. "There is no evidence whatsoever of any penile penetration, no semen has been found, so I am directing you to enter a not-guilty verdict in respect of that count," he said.
He said there was, however, "evidence of considerable mutilation of the vagina" to show that the girl had been subject to a "Section Four rape", which covers rape with an object.
State forensic scientist Dr Louise McKenna has told the trial that fibres found on a sweater taken from the accused's bedroom offered "very strong support" for the proposition that he had contact with the girl.
Mr White said Dr McKenna's evidence was "one of the linchpins of the State's case, but all that Dr McKenna can say is that those fibres matched the schoolgirl's clothes". The scientist could not say that they were from the girl's clothes, he said.
He accused gardai of "a selective seizure of clothes from the bedroom" of the accused on December 15th, 1998.
The trial continues.