‘DNA links accused to girl’s rape and murder’
DNA linking murder accused Stephen Hough to the rape and killing of a Flint schoolgirl 41 years ago was found to be a billion times more likely to be him than anyone else, a court heard.
Forensic scientist Alexander Peat was called to give evidence in the trial of the 58-year-old, of Maes y Dre, who denies the murder, manslaughter and serious sexual assault of 15-year-old Janet Commins in 1976.
At Mold Crown Court the jury heard that samples taken at the time of Janet’s death were delivered to the biologist and a DNA profile of Hough was indicated in a mixture of cells taken from intimate swabs from the teenager.
One of them produced a “major profile that matched Hough,” the court heard.
“It was one billion times more likely to have come from Stephen Hough than someone unrelated to him,” Mr Peat said.
But one of the samples showed the likelihood of a third contributor “but that may be an artefact of the DNA process itself,” he added.
Mr Peat said a semen sample that was recovered was “unlikely to have been deposited more than 48 hours prior to Janet Commins’ death”.
About the “major profile” sample, he said: “There is no clear indication of DNA from another contributor (other than Janet Commins or Stephen Hough).”
But regarding the other, Mr Peat said he “can’t exclude the possibility” of another contributor in one of the samples.
Patrick Harrington QC, defending, who disputes the attribution and correct continuity of the forensic samples, said: “We do not dispute your scientific findings... we are concerned about the source of the material.
“This is an unusual, and in many ways, unique case,” he added.
Janet was discovered in bushes by three girls playing hide and seek in fields near Gwynedd School, in Flint, on January 11, 1976, having been choked to death while being raped and “dragged to a place of concealment”.
At the time Noel Jones pleaded guilty to manslaughter and served half a 12-year prison sentence but now claims his confession “wasn’t genuine”.
Hough, who was 17 then, told police he’d been masturbating in the back of his car and later admitted he’d been siphoning petrol that night.
His DNA profile was matched on the national DNA database when police had cause to take a sample from him in 2016.
The case continues.