Forensic scientists have told a jury they did not find semen on the clothes of an alleged rape victim.
Scientists from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research testified in the Dunedin District Court yesterday in the trial against a man facing four sex charges — ruling out the presence of semen on the woman’s clothing.
The woman who says she was locked in a car and raped faced cross-examination on Tuesday regarding the length of her dress and the amount of alcohol she consumed before allegedly being violated in the back seat of an unregistered taxi.
The woman gave evidence this week, describing the scene of the alleged crime in great detail and the area in Mosgiel where the car reportedly drove off the road on to a grass verge.
She said it began while she sat in the front passenger seat, with the man attempting to touch her hands.
The woman said she noticed the man was driving very slowly on the motorway, with his hands creeping up her legs.
"I told him he needed to go faster and put both hands on the wheel and speed up."
"I kind of knew what was going to happen ... I was just very scared."
Things allegedly took a violent turn when the man said he needed to get something out of the boot, pulling on to a grass verge as they drove into Mosgiel.
"He took his seatbelt off, he moved on top of me ... it was very quick."
The man’s DNA was found on the woman’s clothing but the scientists could not rule out that it belonged to the defendant’s father or son without testing their DNA.
The defence case is that the man’s DNA was transferred to the woman’s underwear simply by the woman sitting in the car — and the genetic material is not definitively that of the defendant.
A piece of what was possibly dried plant material was also collected from the dress, the woman claiming she hid in some bushes and fell down a grass bank once she made her escape from the vehicle.
Anne Stevens KC said the woman had her legs open and was draping them across the dashboard, when her client instructed her to take them down, only touching her legs to remedy the "dangerous" behaviour.
The defendant is expected to say that the woman "was very drunk", leading him to a dead-end road before running away, leaving the fare unpaid.
"He is presumed innocent, a fact you must keep front of mind as you hear the evidence," Mrs Stevens said.
The trial in front of Judge David Robinson is set to continue today with evidence from police.
