One in 650,000m chance DNA matched other - court told

There was an estimated chance of around one in 650,000 million that a DNA profile matching a Cork man accused of rape and murder matched someone else, a forensic scientist said today.

Dr Maureen Smyth of the State Forensic Science Laboratory told the trial of an 18-year-old accused of the rape and murder of a young woman in a park in Ballincollig, Co Cork in October 2000 that she arrived at an estimate of about one in 650,000,000,000, but statistical calculations built into her analysis as safeguards, cut that chance down to a figure more favourable to the accused.