A Co Galway man has appealed against his conviction for the rape and murder of a schoolgirl on a remote beach near Carraroe, Co Galway, in late 1998.
John McDonagh (33), a builder's labourer, The Demesne, Keeraunbeg, Carraroe, was jailed for life in 2001 after being found guilty of the rape and murder of Siobhán Hynes, then aged 17, of Sconse, Lettermore, Connemara, at Tismeain beach in the townland of Keeraunbeg in the early hours of December 6th, 1998.
At the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday, Timothy O'Leary SC applied for leave to introduce new evidence which, counsel said, "goes to the core of the case".
The new material was contained in an independent scientific report which countered the State's forensic evidence, which placed the dead girl in McDonagh's car, counsel said.
At the trial, Dr Louise McKenna, of the State Forensic Science Laboratory, said that fibres found on the jumper McDonagh had worn on the night in question matched Ms Hynes's blue fleece jacket and wine acrylic jumper. The trial was also told that fibres from the fleece and the wine jumper were found in the front passenger seat of McDonagh's car, while other fibres from his red fluffy car-seat cover matched two red fibres found on Ms Hynes's clothes.
Dr McKenna said the fibres lent "very strong support to the proposition that Siobhán Hynes was in contact with John McDonagh's jumper and strong support for her being in his car".
Yesterday, Mr O'Leary said his side's new report suggests that the transfer of fibres was "secondary" and that the contact between the parties was "very light". He said his client wished to call the scientist who compiled that report because it was "fundamental" to his case.
If the court accepted this new evidence, it must open the prospect that the conviction of his client was unsafe, counsel said.
A further ground of appeal was that the jury had not been properly charged on circumstantial evidence and that the transcript of the trial was not accurate in that it did not include a written record in Irish of the evidence which was given in Irish, counsel said. McDonagh and two or three other witnesses had given their evidence in Irish.
Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, for the DPP, argued the court should not admit the scientific report. He said the issue of secondary transfer of fibres had been dealt with at the original trial and there was no cross-examination in that regard by McDonagh's then legal team.
Counsel said Dr McKenna was standing over her original report. He also submitted that the scientist who had compiled the report which the appellant sought to have introduced had accepted that there was "some contact" between McDonagh and Ms Hynes which would have allowed for the transfer of fibres, whereas McDonagh had denied having any contact with Ms Hynes.
Mr Vaughan Buckley also said the charge to the jury was "extremely fair". An experienced translator had been available at the trial and, to the best of his knowledge, the stenographer was also fluent in Irish, counsel said.
The appeal, which is being heard by Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan, Mr Justice Roderick Murphy and Mr Justice Daniel Herbert, continues today.
McDonagh was convicted after a 28-day trial at the Central Criminal Court.