Farah Jama released after rape conviction overturned

A 22-year-old man convicted of a 2006 rape purely on the presence of his DNA has had his rape conviction quashed.

A 22-year-old man convicted of a 2006 rape purely on the presence of his DNA has had his conviction quashed and his six-year sentence overturned after police admitted bungling the DNA sample.

Prosecutors went to the Victorian Court of Appeal this morning to have the conviction of Farah Jama overturned after they admitted a “substantial miscarriage of justice” had occurred in his case.

Mr Jama, who has spent the past 18 months in prison, was found guilty of raping a 40-year-old woman at a nightclub in Melbourne's outer-eastern suburbs after the victim was found unconscious.

She had no memory of the crime but Mr Jama's DNA was later found on the victim.

The then 20-year-old denied ever being near the nightclub on that night, saying he was reading the Koran to his critically ill father at his bedside in their home in the northern suburbs.

The only evidence police had was the DNA sample of Mr Jama, which was coincidently taken 24 hours before the alleged crime after he was investigated over another unrelated matter but not charged.

Prosecutors told the court this morning that it had since been discovered that the same forensic medical officer who took the first DNA sample of Mr Jama had coincidently taken the DNA sample from the 40-year-old rape complainant 24 hours later.

They said it had emerged that the officer had not adhered to strict procedure when taking the sample and therefore they could not “exclude the possibility” of contamination.

Therefore they argued the guilty verdict was unsafe and satisfactory and should be quashed.

The court this morning was packed with Mr Jama's friends and family as the Court of Appeal judges discharged his conviction.