Appeal against rape and sexual assault conviction dismissed due to lack of prejudice from absence of forensic items

The Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal from the Central Criminal Court, upholding the conviction and concurrent sentences imposed on the appellant for rape and sexual assault. The appeal centred around the alleged unfairness arising from the absence of certain items (a bra and a sanitary pad) for forensic testing, which the appellant argued could have provided exculpatory DNA evidence. The Court held that this argument had not been raised at trial without adequate explanation and, in any event, found that the absence of these items did not render the trial unfair, as there was already no forensic evidence linking the appellant to the offences. The Court emphasised that the law does not require victims of sexual offences to preserve evidence and that the circumstances did not meet the threshold for intervention, affirming the original trial’s outcome.