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A man has been freed from jail after serving two years for the rape of a young woman in Christchurch - a crime he says he did not commit.
Fresh DNA tests appear to exclude him from the crime.
Aaron Lance Farmer, a 38-year-old beneficiary, was found guilty of the rape by a jury in April 2005 and sentenced to eight years jail, The Press newspaper reported today.
A 22-year-old woman was dragged off Colombo Street into bushes and raped by a passing motorcyclist as she walked to her brother's Sydenham home after a night out in the city on September 1, 2003.
The Court of Appeal identified several problems with the trial, including that important alibi evidence which may have swung the jury was not presented by the defence.
Farmer was freed from jail on bail last June after the judges quashed his rape conviction and ordered a retrial. The judgment was suppressed until after the new trial.
This week the Crown agreed to the retrial being dropped. It was due to begin in the Christchurch District Court on Monday.
Traces of DNA obtained from the victim's cervical swab and fingernail scrapings were re-tested this year using more sensitive techniques.
The results excluded Farmer as a possible source of the DNA.
Farmer's new defence counsel, Simon Shamy, applied last week to have his client discharged under the Crimes Act and, on Tuesday, Farmer was acquitted.
The Crown said it agreed to the discharge because the victim did not want to proceed with a second trial.
Farmer told The Press it was an enormous relief after insisting for years that police got the wrong man.
"She was attacked - I believe that - which means that someone who attacked her is out there walking free and I did the time for their crime," said Farmer, who has a criminal and psychiatric history.
"The police should put a proper effort into finding who did. They had a description back then and they should have done their job."
Detective Inspector Paul Kench said the police were involved in the Crown's decision.
The police investigation had been reviewed by a senior detective in 2005 and would be looked at again, following the conviction being quashed. The investigation would not be reopened.
At the time of Farmer's sentencing District Court Judge Murray Abbott criticised aspects of the police inquiry regarding disclosure of evidence and deficits in transcripts of a police video interview.
Issues regarding analysis of samples submitted to Environmental Science and Research had not been followed through in a timely way, and no satisfactory explanation had been given why an identity parade had not been conducted.
He also criticised the conduct of one of the video interviews, and he did not accept the police explanation for its deficiencies.
"Put shortly, when it comes to the investigation of serious crime, the community is entitled to expect better," Judge Abbott said.
- NZPA
