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Schoolgirl murder trial told of DNA match
THE man accused of killing schoolgirl Lesley Molseed more than 30 years ago is an "exact match" to DNA genetic material found at the murder scene, jurors have heard.
Ronald Castree, 53, also carried out a similar sexual attack on another little girl just nine months later, Bradford Crown Court was told.
Castree is accused of abducting 11-year-old Lesley as she went to a local shop for her mother in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, in October 1975.
Prosecutors claim Castree then took the frail child to a lonely stretch of moorland near Ripponden, where he stabbed her repeatedly in a "frenzied attack", sexually assaulted her and left her for dead.
But the court was told that Castree left a vital clue at the murder scene – his semen.
The sample was not enough to trace him at the time, but scientists have since used modern DNA genetic techniques which prove there is only a one-in-a-billion chance the semen could have come from anybody else.
It was also revealed that nine months after Lesley's body was discovered, and after innocent man Stefan Kiszko had already been charged with the murder, Castree sexually assaulted another little girl in an attack with disturbing echoes of the Lesley Molseed case.
The nine-year-old was abducted from a street less than half a mile from Lesley's home, taken to an unfamiliar place and sexually assaulted.
The girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, lived in the same area and although younger, was about the same size as the tiny 11-year-old murder victim. Like Lesley, she also had learning difficulties.
Castree pleaded guilty to picking up the child, taking her to a derelict building in Rochdale and sexually assaulting her.
The comic book seller came face to face with Lesley's mother April Garrett in court yesterday.
Miss Garrett told the jury her daughter was an "enchanting girl" and "a little darling who was full of life".
The mother of four, who is originally from Scotland, said her daughter was "very dainty" because she had been born with a heart defect. She was just 4ft tall and weighed three stone.
But she had "fight", had undergone open heart surgery, went to a special school and had lots of friends, she said.
Miss Garrett said that by 1975 she was living in a council house with her second husband, Danny Molseed, and her children from a previous marriage, Freddie, 12, Laura, 13, and Lesley. Another daughter, 16-year-old Julie, had moved out before then.
By "innocent chance" Lesley had been sent on an errand to the shops that led her into the path of her killer.
The children took it in turns on a rota to earn 3p running errands. Choking back tears, she said it was only by chance that Lesley had been sent out to buy bread that day. It should really have been Freddie's turn but he was playing football and Lesley was next on the rota.
When she did not return home for Sunday lunch a "frantic" search was launched.
Her body was found three days later, 30 to 40 yards from the A672 Oldham to Ripponden road, not far from the M62.
Julian Goose QC, prosecuting, told the court she had been murdered at that "isolated moorland scene" probably the same day. She had been stabbed 12 times, in her back, her chest, neck and behind her left ear.
The blade had been wielded with considerable force, piercing her heart, aorta and left lung.
Police arrested Mr Kiszko, who was convicted and jailed for the murder. But he was infertile, and his DNA was different from the sperm found, so he could not have been the killer.
Mr Kiszko died on December 21 1993, less than two years after his release.
By 1999 further forensic examination was carried out and two DNA profiles were obtained, Lesley's and her killer's.
In 2005 Castree was detained after an unrelated incident in Oldham and police took a DNA sample which was an exact match for the Molseed sample.
Mr Goose added: "At its best, the probability of one DNA profile, matching that of another from a separate unrelated person is less than one in a billion."
Castree claimed his DNA was deliberately put there to "set him up" as he had "crossed swords" with two police officers.
Mr Goose said his story was "as illogical and absurd as it was false."
Castree was 22 at the time of Lesley's murder, an office worker and weekend taxi driver, living in Rochdale with his wife Beverley, who had just given birth.
Castree denies murder. The trial continues.
More coverage:
Innocent errand to shops ended in tragedy>>
Alleged killer lived less than a mile from victim>>
A final exoneration for a man wrongly convicted of murder>>
Genetic testing advances led to suspect's arrest>>
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