THE jury in the Worcester park rape trial has been warned not to convict on DNA evidence alone.

Scientists discovered that semen stains left on the victim matched suspect Richard Bawden's DNA profile.

But defence QC Patricia Lynch insisted it was "a myth" that genetic fingerprinting could prove the identity of an attacker.

And she claimed another man - seen earlier in the park committing a sex act on himself - could have been the rapist.

Bawden, aged 28, denies raping a woman on her way home from a party on August 27 last year.

The jury at Worcester Crown Court is due to be sent out to consider its verdict on Monday.

It is alleged that Bawden, of Hillside, Kempsey, who had drunk three litres of strong cider, pounced on the victim and launched a 10-minute attack as she lay pinned to the ground.

The court has been told that only one person in a billion would have the same DNA profile as the defendant.

But in her final speech, Miss Lynch said DNA was a developing science and she warned the jury they did not have to accept what a DNA expert told them simply because she was an expert.

She claimed Bawden could not have been in the park at the time of the attack although it was agreed he was in the vicinity.

Miss Lynch said there were conflicting descriptions of the attacker from a man with short, dark hair to a man with a ponytail.

A dark-skinned, suntanned man had been seen "misbehaving" in the park earlier in the day. And a man with short hair had followed another woman in Droitwich Road the same night.

Miss Lynch told the jury not to speculate about a letter Bawden penned to his girlfriend saying he fitted the description of the rapist which police put out to the media.

Because Bawden suffered from Tourette's Syndrome - a neurological condition - he was over-anxious and unnecessarily worried about being arrested.

Concluding his case, prosecutor William Rickarby said Bawden could not accept the strong evidence against him.

Two witnesses told police of the ponytailed man with a white hairband and Bawden was picked out on an identity parade.

Mr Rickarby said DNA analysis provided compelling evidence against him. He had tried to distance himself from the park at the time of the rape but was "not convincing" in the witness box.

He said the crown had a powerful case which "proved his guilt to the required standard".

Trial continues.