‘And Along Came DNA’: The Introduction of DNA Evidence in Australian Courts in the Applebee case

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 1989, serial offender Desmond Applebee was tried in the Australian Capital Territory for the rape of a young woman. A first for Australian courts, the prosecution tendered DNA evidence to counter Applebee’s alibi that he had been unconscious in his car at the time. However, despite the handling of novel scientific evidence being hotly debated at the time, the trial failed to engage with the legal issues this new evidence raised. The defence was unprepared and under-resourced to put into issue evidentiary principles; there was no systemic means for addressing the issues raised by novel scientific evidence if the defence did not do so. This paper argues that the Applebee case is a dissatisfying case of first impression, graphically illustrating the struggles legal systems can have interrogating novel scientific evidence. The case helped smooth adoption of this new form of evidence. How courts receive and respond to scientific evidence is today again in mind owing to the recent quashing of Kathleen Folbigg’s murder conviction following genetic discoveries; Applebee shows why relying on a particular defendant and particular defence counsel to carry out a gate-keeping function for admissibility of novel evidence collides with practical realities of the court system.