Identical Twin DNA Cited As Alibi Or Confusing Evidence

[Anonymous]

From the BBC : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4378742.stm

Rape case hears of twin brother

The wood where the attack is alleged to have taken place
A man accused of raping a student in Midlothian has lodged a special defence of alibi and has told the court he has an identical twin brother.
Robert Greens, 28, from Dalkeith, claims to have been at addresses in the Penicuik area at the time of the alleged incident on 15 May.

A document lodged at the High Court in Edinburgh claims the 19-year-old was raped by Richard Greens.

The accused's lawyer said identical twins shared the same DNA.

The alibi defence was lodged during a brief procedural hearing. Robert Greens is due back in court next month but a trial is unlikely to begin before mid-January.

The defence team previously asked for more time to consult DNA experts because such evidence was likely to be central to the case.

DNA tests

Defence advocate Jane Farquharson told Lord Abernethy they would contest the claim that DNA found on the student's clothes matched Robert Greens.

"Another explanation for the DNA may be that it is his identical twin brother because, of course, twin brothers share the same DNA," she told the court.

Robert Greens denies a charge of threatening the student with a knife and raping her on the Roslin to Rosewell Road.

He is alleged to have thrown her down an embankment, dragged her along the ground and repeatedly struck her on the face.




So, could there be any identical twins out there using this DNA uncertainty as a tool for crime? I don't really know any of the science behind this but surely there must be some way of telling which twin is which?

 

[Timble2]

If they are identical twins, their DNA will be the same, since they started out from the same ovum/sperm combination. However, their fingerprints won't be identical.

Non-identical twins wouldn't have identical DNA, though it'd be similar as with non-twin siblings.

 

[ramonmercado]

02 February 2007

Rape case collapses over DNA match with twin

GARDAÍ were forced to drop charges against a man suspected of rape after it was discovered he had an identical twin whose DNA was an exact match.


In what is believed to be a landmark decision, it has emerged that the Director of Public Prosecution directed the gardaí not to proceed with the case because the DNA evidence was crucial to a conviction.

The rape took place in Limerick four years ago. The victim, a middle-aged woman, was dragged to waste ground as she was walking home at night and subjected to a brutal attack over a number of hours.



DNA samples taken from the victim matched that of the accused man. However, after the DNA swabs were sent to the State Forensic Science Laboratory for analysis it was discovered the suspect was an identical twin.

Although there was strong evidence against the suspect, the DPP decided not to prosecute after the accused’s brother refused to cooperate with gardaí.

Without his cooperation and because DNA evidence was so central to the trial, it would be impossible to prove in court to which brother the DNA evidence belonged.

Identical twins have identical DNA. They come from the same fertilised egg, which had only one complete set of DNA. That fertilised egg and its single set of DNA split to form twin embryos — each with its own set of DNA, but identical to the other.

Supt Frank O’Brien yesterday confirmed the case against the suspect had been dropped and that DNA was “an issue”.

Supt O’Brien said they were satisfied that the woman was subjected to a “savage rape”.

“We believe it happened as she said it happened. We communicated the result to her, that the DPP directed no prosecution, and gave her all the counselling support we could.”

Supt O’Brien said it was the job of the gardaí to gather evidence during an investigation and for the DPP to make a decision based on that evidence.

Supt O’Brien said: “That is his call.”

The head of the Forensic Science Laboratory’s DNA section, Dr Maureen Smyth, said she had not come across a case before involving identical twins.

Dr Smyth said it was unusual for a case to rest solely on DNA evidence and that there were usually other circumstances, such as fingerprints (which are different among identical twins) and fibres from clothes.

“Generally, in our cases there is other evidence. You might have fibres, glass on the clothes, in general, some other corroborating evidence, sometimes only slight,” said Dr Smyth.

She accepted that visual identification of the suspect might not be of any use in an identical twin situation.

She said the Limerick case did not mean DNA evidence was of no use in cases involving people who had identical twins, and that it could prove crucial along with corroborating evidence.

Dr Liz Moore, who worked at the State Forensic Science Laboratory at garda headquarters for six years said: “The DNA of identical twins has the exact same profile. They come from the same zygote which splits in two to form two embryos.”

Dr Moore, who now lectures at the forensic science faculty at the Limerick Institute of Technology, said that while identical twins have identical DNA, the chance of a match in twins who are not identical is the same for all siblings, about 10,000 to one.

She said the chance of any one in the population having a matching DNA with another person was one billion to one.

A spokesperson for the DPP said last night he was precluded from commenting on any individual cases.

Twins

 

[Anonymous]

I knew this would happen someday.

 

[Vardoger]

The guilty twin will proably go amok with his raping until he is caught in the act.

 

[maureenmac1]

Something similar happened a couple of years ago near Rosslyn chapel.
The rapist claimed it could have been his twin brother, but his twin was in another part of the country at the time. Thankfully the innocent brother was so apalled by his siblings crime he willingly testified against him.
At least there is still some decency in the world.

 

[ramonmercado]

Something similar happened a couple of years ago near Rosslyn chapel.
.

Did it get the conspiracy theorists going?

 

[Anome]

Were they twin albino templars working for the Vatican?