Accused's DNA profile matches deceased in murder case

Blood found on a murder accused’s clothes had the same DNA profile as his alleged victim, the Central Criminal Court heard.

Forensic Scientist Dr Fiona Thornton gave evidence that she tested the blood found on homeless man Stephen Byrne’s tracksuit and runners. She told his trial she compared it with a muscle sample taken from 70-year-old William Traynor and their DNA profile matched.

Mr Byrne (aged 36) has pleaded not guilty to murdering the pensioner in his home on St Francis Terrace, Bow Street on June 17, 2007.

Fire-fighters found the elderly man badly beaten that evening, after being called to a small fire in his home. He died from his injuries two days later in Beaumont Hospital.

Dr Thornton said she also obtained a DNA profile from blood found on a gas cylinder removed from the dead man’s house. This too matched that of Mr Traynor.

Earlier, a neighbour told the court he saw a person with a blow torch in Mr Traynor’s home less than an hour before he was found unconscious.

Alan Kennelly could see the back of Mr Traynor’s property from his apartment on the sixth floor of a nearby building. He said he could see through an unglazed window into an outhouse.

He said he heard an extremely loud hissing noise coming from there at about 5.30pm on the day Mr Traynor was beaten.

“I could see through the window that someone was holding a gas torch,” he said. “The sound changed from a hissing noise to a roar when a flame was lit.” The flame was yellow and about 12 inches long, he said.

He said Mr Traynor then appeared at the back door of his house and began waving his crutch at the person with the torch. He said Mr Traynor also tried to hit the person with his crutch.

“He was an old man,” he said of Mr Traynor. “When he tried to hit him, he was very weak. He didn’t have any strength in his arms.” He said Mr Traynor then turned to go back into his house.

Mr Kennelly said that when he first saw the torch, he thought the person was about to strip paint off a door, but when he saw Mr Traynor waving the crutch, he thought there was alcohol involved.

However, he said he did not think it was very serious until the fire brigade arrived 15 minutes later and he saw smoke billowing out the back of the house.

Erwan Mill-Arden SC, defending, put it to Mr Kennelly that he described the flame as blue and not yellow in his statement to gardaí. Mr Kennelly looked at his statement and agreed.

“I was quite traumatised at the time,” he explained.

Mr Mill-Arden showed him a burnt-out camping stove found at the scene, which Mr Byrne had said he lit to keep Mr Traynor warm. However Mr Kennelly said this was not what the equipment he saw through the window.

He also said the hissing sound he heard could not have been caused by an air-locked tap or faulty plumbing, which Mr Mill-Arden said existed in the house.

Earlier in the trial, the jury heard that Mr Byrne said he went out the back to get some water to clean blood from Mr Traynor’s face. However, the tap was broken, he said.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and a jury of seven women and five men.