Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Dad’s body is dug up in DNA bid to clear rapist
A MAN buried in 1993 has been dug up for DNA tests to see if he carried out two rapes his son was jailed for.
Scaffolder Eric Mckenna, 58, is serving 23 years after he was convicted last year of attacking a woman aged 21 in 1983 and a woman of 18 in 1988.
He was arrested after he got a caution for urinating in a neighbour’s plant pot and his DNA sample gave a hit on a cold case database.
But earlier this year, his sister Eileen Hutton said their dad Thomas – who died of a heart attack aged 62 – could have been the rapist.
Mckenna’s wife Moira got permission to exhume his remains from St John’s Cemetery in Elswick, Newcastle, which was closed yesterday as the work was done.
Staff in white overalls and face masks were seen behind a blue plastic barrier and a green gazebo had been set up. Newcastle city council confirmed the work was carried out with the “full co-operation of the family”.
Mckenna, of Arthur’s Hill, Newcastle, was 23 at the time of the first attack and his father would have been around 52. His 1983 victim, Wendy Forrester, who is now 58 and has waived anonymity, told how Mckenna grabbed her from behind and gave her £1 “for her bus fare” after her ordeal.
She said: “I think they are clutching at straws but his family need to think about other people, not themselves.
“I was so relieved when he was convicted. I have been dealing with this 30-odd years and I thought it was over.
“It’s bad enough going through that. Now this has brought it all back. I’m still confident the right person is in jail.”