Court of Appeal reserves decision on John McDonagh's bid to retest evidence in Siobhan Hynes murder case

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision on an application by John McDonagh (51) to have trial exhibits forensically retested, as he seeks to establish that his conviction for the rape and murder of Siobhan Hynes (17) was unsafe. McDonagh was found guilty by a Central Criminal Court jury in 2001, pleaded not guilty at trial and was sentenced to life in prison. He lost an appeal against the conviction in 2007.

The three-judge court heard from both sides. Senior counsel Paul Carroll, for the State, said scientific advances alone cannot justify a re-examination of the evidence and that any decision to allow the application must be grounded on newly discovered evidence. Judge Nuala Butler responded that this was "the chicken and the egg", since McDonagh could not produce new evidence without access to the exhibits. Carroll said there must be a threshold for establishing why retesting should be done. Senior counsel Michael O'Higgins, for McDonagh, said that if there is a reasonable prospect that retesting could produce something usable and credible, it should be done.

The court heard evidence from two forensic experts. Clare Jarman, for McDonagh, said DNA testing was useful at the time of the trial but was "very much in its infancy", and that modern technology is more sensitive and better at cleaning samples and removing contaminants. Dr Dorothy Ramsbottom of Forensic Science Ireland, who prepared a report for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the body had been touched by a number of people and that different anti-contamination procedures applied then.

McDonagh was jailed for the murder of Hynes at Tismeáin beach near Leitir Mór in Conamara in the early hours of December 6th, 1998.