Neville Mansfield, pictured outside the Sale court house in 2009. Photo: Courtesy ABC <\/p>\n
Neville Mansfield was never a suspect in a terrifying home invasion where a young mother was repeatedly raped and her two children and an elderly babysitter threatened until 14 years later, when his DNA was linked to the crime. <\/p>\n
Mansfield, now 52, had masked his face and head with a tea-towel, so that just a narrow slit revealed his eyes, when he entered the Shepparton house through an unlocked door in April 1993 armed with a knife. <\/p>\n
He was not caught until 2007 when arrested by Queensland police for other crimes. A DNA sample was taken and matched a sperm fragment of DNA on the Shepparton mother. <\/p>\n
During his trial, evidence was given that the sperm sample was 8.4 trillion times more likely to be from Mansfield than from a random member of the population. <\/p>\n
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Today, Mansfield went to court seeking leave to appeal his conviction and jail sentence. <\/p>\n
Defence barrister Dermot Dann told the Court of Appeal's Justices Peter Buchanan, David Ashley and Paul Coghlan that the Crown case against Mansfield was a circumstantial one which relied heavily on DNA evidence. <\/p>\n
Mr Dann said the jury at Mansfield's trial was not properly instructed on how to deal with the DNA evidence. <\/p>\n
He said other aspects of the case, including the \"resemblance evidence\", was particularly weak. <\/p>\n
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Excerpt from: Neville Mansfield, pictured outside the Sale court house in 2009. Photo: Courtesy ABC Neville Mansfield was never a suspect in a terrifying home invasion where a young mother was repeatedly raped and her two children and an elderly babysitter threatened until 14 years later, when his DNA was linked to the crime. Continue reading
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