Prosecution accuse parents of telling lies in murder trial

A prosecution lawyer has accused the parents of an 18-year-old Corkman accused of rape and murder of lying in the witness box to protect their son.

The 18-year-old accused cannot be named for legal reasons. He denies the rape and murder of Ms Rachel Kiely, aged 22, at the Regional Park, Ballincollig, Co Cork on October 26, 2000.

Senior Counsel, PJ McCarthy, in his closing speech to the trial jury in the Central Criminal Court, said that the accused’s father had "deliberately thrown" into the case lies and innuendo to cast doubt on the conduct of the garda investigation.

"I suggest to you that he and his parents - perhaps understandably - have told lies in the course of this trial", he said.

The prosecution counsel told the jury to rely on evidence of "opportunity, the fibres, the DNA and the lies told" to convict the accused of the rape and murder of Rachel Kiely.

He said the site where Ms Kiely’s body was found, in a hollow surrounded by ferns and briars behind an old ruin in Ballincollig Regional Park, was not somewhere any sane person would go by consent on a rainy night.

The scene, coupled with other evidence and the conclusion of the state pathologist Dr John Harbison that Rachel Kiely tried to escape her attacker, indicated "an attempted flight after prior sexual activity where there was no question of consent in any way", counsel said.

Mr McCarthy also told the jury that a "theoretical concern" raised by a defence expect about possible contamination of materials used to determine DNA evidence in the case was "a red herring" and a "ludicrous, fanciful theory" that was "thrown in" in an attempt to discredit DNA analysis.

He submitted that there was no serious challenge to either the DNA or fibre evidence in the trial. Aside from allowing the theoretical possibility of deliberate tampering or contamination, the defence expert, Dr Denise Syndercombe Court, had commented "extremely favourably" on the professionalism of forensic scientist Dr Maureen Smyth and the veracity of DNA evidence, counsel said.

The defence closing speech is to begin this afternoon in the trial before a jury and Mr Justice Butler.