Slack Australian forensic science again

FOR 17 months a vital clue to the killer of Sevda Bayrak was at the fingertips of police. It lay in a strand of hair found under the right thumbnail of the Turkish-born 33-year-old during an autopsy that revealed she had been stabbed 22 times. It lodged there as she fought for her life on the night of Saturday, November 26, 2005, inside her unit in Betts Street, Parramatta.

The technology exists in Australia to compare the DNA of blood from suspects to blood found at a crime scene, but Australia does not have the capacity to test for mitochondrial DNA from hair follicles, a Sydney court was told yesterday. So the weeks passed until last month, when police decided to send the strand of hair for testing in New Orleans. It was compared to saliva volunteered by a number of persons of interest, including Yusif Aytugrul, 41, a Turkish-born immigrant of Auburn. The US experts allegedly found a positive match.

Aytugrul was charged with murder before Burwood Local Court yesterday. The court heard that he had a brief relationship with Ms Bayrak. Samantha Mitchell, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, alleged Aytugrul was obsessed with Ms Bayrak after the couple ended their brief relationship in 2003 and had "stalked" her and threatened her family. Ms Mitchell said Aytugrul was interviewed by police a few days after the murder and denied ever having gone there. During a second brief interview 12 days after the murder he volunteered his DNA.

The court was not told why it took so long for police to send the hair follicle for tests abroad.

During an unsuccessful bail application for Aytugrul, the single father of a 10-year-old boy, his solicitor Iknur Bayari said her client intended to plead not guilty. The magistrate, Jane Mottley, remanded him in custody

Report here



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