Saturday, November 21, 2009 Previous editions
The trial of two Romanian men accused of raping and sexually assaulting a fellow national after kidnapping her while she was on her way to pick her son up from school has collapsed at the Central Criminal Court.
Mr Justice Peter Charleton told the jury that “certain material came to light”, including messages on the complainant’s phone, a message in a “lonely hearts” column and contradictory evidence, during a lengthy application in its absence.
He explained that gardaí and the defence were entitled to investigate the phone messages and the alleged advertisement placed by the complainant or her husband.
He said these new disclosures and evidence that only one of the men’s DNA was found on the complainant shortly after the alleged attack where she stated both accused had ejaculated on her, meant that the matter “cannot fairly be tried”.
The 47-year-old and 33-year-old men, had pleaded not guilty to 17 charges of various sexual offences and one each of false imprisonment of the woman on November 6, 2006.
Mr Justice Charleton thanked the five women and seven men of the jury for their attention to the trial and discharged them from jury duty for five years.
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