No evidence to support rape: barrister | Rockhampton News | Local News in Rockhampton

THERE was no scientific, forensic or medical evidence to support a rape case against a Moranbah miner, defence barrister Paddy Cullinane told the District Court in Mackay yesterday.

The alleged rape victim had no injuries, bruises or redness despite her allegation that she was raped for "perhaps hours", Mr Cullinane said.

Her claims of rape were not truthful or credible, he said.

Leon Michael Hanratty, 35, mining contractor, of Beaconsfield, has pleaded not guilty to entering a dwelling with intent to commit rape and two charges of rape, all at the 400-room Grosvenor Accommodation Village in Moranbah on September 11, 2008.

The Crown case is that Hanratty knocked on the woman’s door at night, forced his way in when she opened it, raped her for "perhaps hours" despite her telling him she wasn’t interested in sex and telling him to stop.

Mr Cullinane said the woman told an unbelievable version of what happened. There were no admissions by Hanratty to police and no witnesses because the alleged incidents happened in a closed room.

At no stage did the woman yell or scream.

"There are people just a few feet away from her, in adjoining rooms on either side, with common walls," he said.

"She did not hit or kick the walls. She didn’t struggle or try to flee. It could not have happened the way she alleges."

The final witness, a Moranbah Medical Centre doctor who examined the woman, said he found no bruises, no trauma and no redness on the woman’s private area or thighs. The doctor said that, if the rape had occurred as alleged over several hours, "it was a reasonable expectation to notice some evidence of trauma".

Mr Cullinane said: "It’s not just the case that the medical evidence doesn’t support the Crown case, it rules it out."

Mr Cullinane said that, after the alleged rape, the woman went and had a shower and saw Hanratty outside the shower blocks and they walked close to each other back to their separate rooms, something which was unbelievable if she had been raped.