DNA from man who ‘molested teen’s dead body may have been there before she died’
DNA belonging to a man accused of molesting a murdered teenager’s body instead of alerting police may have been present on her body before she died, a forensic biologist has said.
Stephen Corrigan, 45, is said to have inappropriately touched 16-year-old Amber Gibson’s body after finding it at Cadzow Glen in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, in November 2021.
Jurors at the High Court in Glasgow have heard she was strangled to death there by her brother Connor Gibson, 20, who is also on trial, during a sex attack on November 26.
Corrigan’s DNA was ‘widespread’ on Amber’s body, spanning 39 areas, including her buttocks, breasts and pubic area, with forensic biologist Alana Gunn estimating it came from ‘direct contact’.
However, following questioning from Corrigan’s defence agent, Rhonda Anderson, Ms Gunn said she could not ‘exclude’ the possibility his DNA was on the teenager’s body by secondary transfer.
Ms Anderson put to Ms Gunn, if Amber had slept naked inside a sleeping bag that had Corrigan’s DNA on it before her death that could account for why his DNA was on her body.
The expert replied: ‘If there was a significant amount of DNA in the sleeping bag then I couldn’t exclude that, no.’
Ms Anderson added: ‘As I understand it, your position from your evidence is that it could be that Stephen Corrigan’s DNA deposited on Ms Niven’s body could have been deposited before she went to the park (Cadzow Glen).
‘Should the ladies and gentlemen on the jury understand that you are unable to exclude that his DNA was deposited on Amber Niven’s body before she went to the park and before she died?’
Ms Gunn replied: ‘We cannot tell you exactly what time the DNA was deposited’, before adding evidence did not say whether it existed on her body before or after her death.
Corrigan denies inappropriately touching and then concealing Amber’s body between November 26 and 28.
He is accused of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by hiding it under bushes and branches to prevent its discovery and altering or destroying evidence that he had touched her body and clothing.
Gibson denies murder, with jurors hearing he is accused of removing his sister’s clothes and repeatedly inflicting blunt force trauma to her head and body on November 26, 2021.
Prosecutors allege he compressed the 16-year-old’s neck with his hands and strangled her with the intention to rape her.
He faces further charges of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by disposing of bloodstained clothes and calling the children’s home where his sister lived and pretending she was alive.
Gibson also faces a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice by telling police he had argued with his sister on the evening of November 26 before going to someone’s home.
The trial, before judge Lord Mulholland, continues.
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