The Defence has begun its closing argument in the Riverhead trial at the High Court in Auckland.
Colin Jack Mitchell, 59, is facing three charges in connection to the alleged kidnapping and sexually-motivated attack on a 23-year-old woman at a Riverhead quarry last year.
Mitchell’s lawyer, Mark Ryan concedes the pair of gloves found at the Riverhead quarry with Mitchell’s DNA on them is the main issue of this trial. No secret, no mystery.
But he said what is central is when the DNA got there, how it got there and in what circumstances the gloves were left at Riverhead.
He told the jury that the ESR scientists who analysed the gloves can’t determine whose DNA was most recently left on them.
Mr Ryan said nothing has changed during the trial regarding his client Mitchell – “It wasn’t him. It wasn’t his car”.
Earlier, the Crown said the issue comes down to identity.
The Crown says it has four strands of evidence which point to Mitchell as the offender, including cell phone records that put Mitchell in Riverhead at the time of the attack, CCTV footage capturing Mitchell's car in the city and entering the quarry, tire tread marks left at the scene, and most importantly Mitchell's DNA found on gloves left at the scene.
ESR scientists say the DNA found on and inside the gloves is 800 billion times more likely to come from Mitchell than anyone else.
Mitchell told the court yesterday he had tried on a pair of similar gloves at the Warehouse just a short time earlier and that must explain how his DNA was on the gloves.
The Crown today called that version of events "fanciful" and said that version of events would make him "the unluckiest man in Auckland".
Mitchell's defence say he was not involved in the attack in any way.
There is no DNA or forensic evidence linking the victim to Mitchell's car but the Crown argues he had twelve days to clean his car before Police seized it.
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