DNA expert: ‘Extremely rare’ to find sperm in rectum after 113 hours
(The Malaysian Insider) – An Australian DNA expert in the Sodomy II trial today disputed medical findings that sperm could still be retrieved from a person’s rectum 113 hours after anal sex.
Dr Brian McDonald said during Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy trial that it was “extremely rare” that healthy DNA profiles could still be found from a person’s anal region after such a long time.
“In 99.9 per cent (of the cases), you cannot find sperm at all after such long hours. These are the rarest entries reported in (the literature).
“However, this (sodomy) case is the only one (that I know of) in the world where the sperm can be captured after 56 hours and given to the chemist two days later, where you can still find a good DNA sample,” he testified in court today.
“In my experience for the last 20 years, it would give poor results,” the defence expert witness said.
Prosecution lawyers have charged that based on a medical article presented in court, semen can be retrieved from a person’s rectum between four and 113 hours after anal intercourse.
The 1997 article, titled “Sexual assault and semen persistence”, was written by G.M. Willott and J.E. Allard.
The prosecution had previously in the trial cited a separate case where sperm heads were discovered up to 65 hours after sex, shower and defecation.
Doctors from Hospital Kuala Lumpur, who examined complainant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan two days after the alleged sodomy, have said they managed to obtain DNA specimens from the complainant’s rectum despite a lapse of 56 hours, which has been a key issue disputed by Anwar’s defence team.
