Accused man’s DNA was ‘not on woman who says she was raped on bus’
NO DNA from a man accused of raping a woman on singer Jason Derulo’s tour bus was found on the alleged victim, a forensic scientist has told the Central Criminal Court.
Swabs were taken from the woman at a sexual assault unit in Cork city within six hours of the alleged rape, but no semen was found anywhere on the woman, a jury heard.
The woman claims the man raped her without wearing a condom. The accused man claims they had consensual sex and that he wore a condom.
The tour bus where the alleged rape occurred was declared a crime scene after the complainant, who was 19 at the time, went to gardaí on June 27, 2014.
Following an examination of the bus, six condoms were recovered and sent to a forensic scientist laboratory.
Dr Charlotte Murphy said a number of swabs had been taken from the complainant and that her DNA was not found on any of the condoms. Dr Murphy agreed with defence lawyer Seán Guerin SC that she would have a ‘very high expectation’ of finding semen on the complainant’s swabs if they had been taken six hours after an alleged rape. She told Judge Paul Butler and the jury that the lack of semen on the complainant’s swabs support
‘Kissing me on my neck and face’
the man’s claim that a condom was used during intercourse.
Various swabs had been taken from both the complainant and the accused, and Dr Murphy said it was possible to detect saliva from skin swabs. The court heard yesterday that the accused asked gardaí to take saliva swabs from his neck after he said the woman had been kissing him there.
He told gardaí she was ‘kissing me on my neck and face’, adding: ‘She’s kissing me. I don’t like kissing girls. She’s kissing me all over. I have lipstick on my neck right now.’ But the court heard no swabs were taken from the man who gave a two-hour videoed interview to gardaí shortly after he was arrested.
The 35-year-old is accused of raping the woman on the bus after he met her at a VIP aftershow party for Jason Derulo at a Cork city nightclub. Mr Derulo is not charged with any offence.
Earlier in the trial, Mr Guerin, defending, said his client was not disputing the pair had sex but said it was consensual.
The court also heard about text messages sent to and from the complainant’s phone.
Detective Sergeant Jason Lynch told Tim O’Leary SC, prosecuting, that the woman sent a text to her then boyfriend at 3.50am, saying: ‘I’m bruised and I have no-one. They brought me to their bus and raped me.’
The officer agreed with Mr Guerin that she got a message on June 27 from a cousin saying: ‘OMG it’s all over the radio.’
He agreed she responded in her text: ‘It was me I’m at garda station don’t say anything to family no one knows yet.’
The case resumes on Monday.