Court artist's impression of Robert Jeffrey. PICTURE: THE COURIER
A BLOOD stain less than one millimetre in size allegedly found on Robert Jeffrey’s boot is a 33 billion-to-one chance of belonging to the man he is accused of assaulting, a jury was told this morning.
Jeffrey, 51, allegedly assaulted Robert Linane in Ballarat North on March 6 last year.
Mr Linane suffered serious head injuries and spent more than three months in hospital.
The County Court in Ballarat was this morning told of DNA evidence linking Mr Linane to Jeffrey's right boot, and Jeffrey to a cricket bat that was seized by police the day after the assault took place.
A case manager from the Victoria Police Forensic Services Centre gave evidence, telling the jury there was "extremely strong" evidence that a small blood stain found on Jeffrey’s boot belonged to Mr Linane.
She said it was 33 billion times more likely that the sample analysed would match Mr Linane’s DNA than a randomly selected Caucasian.
The witness also said there was "extremely strong support" that DNA taken from the cricket bat belonged to Jeffrey.
Jeffrey has pleaded not guilty to intentionally causing serious injury, aggravated burglary, criminal damage and theft.
In her evidence last Tuesday, Mr Linane’s partner Leanne Lawson told the jury that the couple had been at their Walker Street home on the day in question when Jeffrey and three others allegedly walked in.
She said the intruders went to find Mr Linane while she ran out the front of the house and called triple-zero.
She said she could hear screaming and banging before Jeffrey and the others left the house.
When she went to check on her partner, she said he was lying over the back door barely breathing and with one eye hanging out of his head.
She also said that in the early hours of the day of the assault a group had gathered outside the couple's home. She claimed Jeffrey was present and that windows were smashed using a cricket bat.
The trial before Judge Tony Howard continues.