Aytugrul v. The Queen

Lower Court Judgment

3/12/2010 Supreme Court of New South Wales (Court of Criminal Appeal) (McClellan CJ, Simpson and Fullerton JJ)

[2010] NSWCCA 272

Catchwords

Criminal law — Identification evidence — DNA evidence — Admissibility — Discretion to admit or exclude evidence — Applicant convicted of murder of former partner — Evidence led by prosecution at trial that a hair found on deceased's thumbnail consistent with applicant's mitochondrial DNA profile — Prosecution expert gave evidence that 99.9 per cent of people in general population would not have a profile matching the hair ("statistical evidence") — Expert's statistical evidence did not take ethnicity into account — Different prosecution witness gave evidence that approximately two per cent of persons of applicant's ethnicity would be expected to share DNA profile found in the hair — Whether trial judge ought to have refused to admit the statistical evidence — Evidence Act 1995 (NSW), ss 135 and 137.

Short Particulars