Shock as woman wakes up half naked in an open field with no idea how she got there

Wales: A pensioner raped a woman aged 24 who woke up half-naked in a field with no idea how she got there.

Malcolm Donaldson, of Caernarfon, Wales, claimed he was at home in bed at the time of the attack in Prestatyn in the early hours of March 23 last year.

However forensic tests linked the DNA of Donaldson, 73, to the woman, with prosecuting barrister Kim Halsall suggesting there was a “one in a billion chance” that semen collected via swabs belonged to someone else, the Daily Post reports.

During the hearing, Donaldson’s barrister Simon Rogers said the DNA found was the only evidence against him and suggested that the sample must have been contaminated.

But the jury of six men and six women, who retired for an hour and 40 minutes, unanimously found him guilty of raping the woman.

Mr Justice Wyn Williams at Mold Crown Court remanded Donaldson in custody pending sentence and said that his dangerousness needed to be assessed.

It was, the judge said, a very serious attack in the middle of the night on a vulnerable young woman.

Sentencing him as a dangerous offender was something that would have to be considered, he added.

The defence said that it was a highly unusual case and pointed out that even the prosecution expert could not positively rule out the possibility that the DNA sample could have been contaminated.

Donaldson said he had no contact with Prestatyn and said he had not driven to the town that night.

Halsall said he must have been in Prestatyn and had seen a vulnerable young woman walking alone at night in her pyjamas.

The DNA showed that he was the rapist, she said.

Prior to the incident, the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was on a night out and believes her drink may have been spiked.

She recalled going out and being in a bar – but her next recollection was waking up in a field with no pants and her pyjama bottoms beside her.

Donaldson, a man with no previous convictions, will be sentenced during the second week of April.