Defence lawyers question historical rape DNA evidence

Rachael Ward and Emily Woods | October 17, 2025

Hair on a towel, fluids on a nightgown and underpants, discarded cigarette butts and a Jack Daniels can.

These pieces of evidence, some collected in the 1980s and others retrieved by police in recent years, will be used to prove a cold case rape from four decades ago, a court has been told.

Michael Francis Martin, 70, faced Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday for the beginning of a committal hearing, where evidence will be tested before a magistrate decides whether he can be committed to stand trial.

He was charged in January with multiple sex attacks on grandmother Jessie Grace Lauder at Newport, in Melbourne’s west, in the early 1980s. 

Police allege Martin, then aged 26, was a neighbour and assaulted the elderly woman and attempted to rape her at her home in 1981, and returned in 1983 and raped her.

Ms Lauder, who was aged in her 80s at the time, died in 1993.

His barrister John Desmond told the court he plans to argue that the charges against his client should be discharged due to the strength of DNA evidence.

“It’s not straightforward and I anticipate making submissions as to whether my client should be discharged,” he said on Friday.

Mr Desmond spent the day questioning pieces of evidence gathered by police in the four decades leading up to laying charges against Martin.

Police found hair on a towel, and semen on a nightgown and underpants at the scene, after the alleged attacked, he told the court.

However, forensic testing did not exist at that time so the evidence was stored by police in anticipation of new technology.

Mr Desmond raised issues with evidence police had covertly collected in recent years to link Martin’s DNA to evidence from the crime scene.

This included discarded cigarette butts, allegedly linked to Martin and his brother, and a Jack Daniels can.

Mr Desmond alleged an internal Victoria Police email found testing of some items showed it did not match DNA taken from the underpants.

“You see the problem now?” Mr Desmond asked police forensic specialist Katherine Bradley.

Earlier, the court was shown an undated video of a police building covered with boxes and bags strewn on the floor and stacked high on shelves up a wall.

“It looks like it’s a schemozzle,” Mr Desmond said.

Forensic officer Paul Dacey, who worked on the case in 1983, suggested the video may have been taken while the unit was shifting between premises on Spring Street in the city and Macleod in Melbourne’s northeast.

Martin remains on bail and the committal will return in February next year.