Defence claims accused is victim of coincidence

Michael Traynor, 24, is alleged to have followed the 16-year-old girls as they walked home from Bud's Bar and to have attacked them at the West Ham Leisure Park in September last year.

However, his barrister told Winchester Crown Court that his client was the victim of coincidence.

Paul Dugdale, defending, said: "The only evidence is this - he fits the description and was in the area."

He said it was a coincidence that Traynor was wearing a cream sweater like the attacker's and had been on his way home from Bud's Bar.

Traynor, of no fixed address, but formerly of Kings Road, South Ham, denies attempted rape and two alternative charges of indecent assault.

Traynor has said he returned home that night to his girlfriend's house in St Peter's Road, South Ham, with scratches on his face and body because he had been attacked first in a nightclub and later by three men.

Traynor also denies committing an earlier offence of indecent assault against a 29-year-old woman in November 2000. She was also walking home from Bud's Bar and the offence took place at the junction of St Peter's Road and Charles Street in South Ham.

Charles Gabb, prosecuting, has told the trial that the man involved in both incidents was wearing the same jumper.

Mr Gabb has alleged that despite claiming to be illiterate, Traynor knew South Ham "like the back of his hand" and had tried to cover himself against DNA evidence from the attempted rape by claiming to have met two other girls that night and to have kissed one of them.

He had not explained the scratches either, said Mr Gabb. He told the jury: "How clever, in many ways, he has been."

He said it was "fanciful" to think the attacks had not been carried out by the same man when there were so many common factors.

The jury of eight men and four women retired to consider their verdicts on Wednesday and were still deliberating when The Gazette went to press.

The trial continues.