Rapist's sentence appeal rejected

A County Tyrone man jailed for raping a 91-year-old woman has lost an appeal against his 16 year sentence at the Court of Appeal in Belfast.

Eamon Foley, 45, from Dreenan Road in Castlederg, claimed almost everyone involved in his trial in 2001 had conspired to secure his conviction.   Foley had denied raping Mary-Anne McLaughlin at her isolated mobile home in Castlederg on 15 January 1999.   The pensioner died one month after the attack took place.

Lord Chief Justice Sir Brian Kerr told the court that none of the increasingly outlandish claims made by Foley had been supported by evidence or analysis of the material presented on his behalf.   "He has had the temerity to question whether Miss McLaughlin had been raped at all," he said.   "He has invited this court to conclude that he was the victim of an outrageous conspiracy whose participants ranged from his own legal teams, experts engaged on his behalf, the trial judge, the prosecution, the police witnesses, the forensic science agency and many others.   "It is entirely clear that they were presented in an increasingly desperate attempt to divert attention from the central indisputable fact that his DNA was found in the body of his unfortunate victim."

Foley was arrested after police had taken DNA samples from about 600 men in the Castlederg area and it was this forensic evidence which led to his conviction.

At his trial in 2001, a forensic expert said the odds against the DNA belonging to anyone else were a billion to one.

Source: BBC NEWS

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