Darren Weldon trial hears Newry bomb DNA evidence

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

Darren Weldon (45), of Drinadaly, Trim, has pleaded not guilty to membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself as the Irish Republican Army. The charge concerns alleged membership on 14 October 2014. The proceedings were reported on 29 November 2016.

The prosecution’s case at the Special Criminal Court was that DNA evidence linked Mr Weldon to a number plate found in the debris of the car bomb that exploded outside Newry courthouse on 22 February 2010.

On 29 November 2016, Dr John Gibson, of the Forensic Science Lab in Dublin, told prosecuting counsel Seán Guerin SC that he compared a DNA sample from Mr Weldon with a profile received from the UK’s forensic science services. The court had previously heard that the profile came from the recovered number plate. Dr Gibson said the chance of finding a matching profile from somebody unrelated to Mr Weldon was “considerably less than one in a thousand million”.

Under cross-examination by Hugh Hartnett SC, defending, Dr Gibson agreed that it was impossible to say how the DNA had been deposited or how long it had been there. He also said secondary or tertiary transfer was possible.

Earlier, Chloe Holland, assistant scientific officer at Forensic Science Northern Ireland, told the court she recovered DNA from the top and bottom edges of a number plate. The trial continued before Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, with Judge Martin Nolan and Judge Cormac Dunne.