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29 March 2024

'Rapist' blames 'evil' identical twin

Lucas' lawyers say investigators originally picked up the wrong twin.

Published

A judge says a US Army officer linked by DNA to a string of sexual assaults on young girls will be allowed to blame his twin brother at trial.

The judge ruled on Friday it would be "inappropriate" to bar Aaron Lucas' lawyers from presenting his identical twin as an alternate suspect given the siblings' shared DNA, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette.

Karen Steinhauser, a criminal defence lawyer and adjunct law professor at the University of Denver, told The Associated Press such an argument is rare.

"I have never seen it, ever," she said. "The only time I have seen it was on Law and Order: SVU," the television show. Steinhauser is not involved in the case.

In an October 22 court filing, Lucas' lawyers said investigators picked the wrong sibling after discovering a DNA link to an unsolved attack on a young girl in Alabama in 2007 and another in Texas in 2009.

Lucas has denied luring or trying to lure 11 girls into his vehicle in Colorado between 2009 and 2012. His lawyers have said the Alabama and Texas cases involve his twin brother, Brian Frederick Lucas, who the defence says has lived in both states.

Brian Lucas, who has not been charged in any of the cases, could not be reached for comment on Saturday, but investigators have said he has denied involvement in the alleged crimes.

Investigators say a DNA test linked Aaron Lucas to the abduction of an eight-year-old girl in Colorado and that he matched biological material recovered in the Alabama and Texas cases.

Lucas is scheduled to appear in a Colorado court on November 26.

Hostage escapes by hailing a taxi

French hostage held nearly a year escapes in Nigeria

A French engineer abducted by Islamist militants in Nigeria last year has managed to escape, slipping out of his cell and hailing a taxi to take him to police, officials said Sunday.

President Francois Hollande announced that Francis Collomp, 63, was free after being taken by Islamist militants on December 19, 2012, in the state of Katsina in northern Nigeria.

Collomp escaped in the northern city of Zaria on Saturday while his captors were praying, said Femi Adenaike Adeleye, the police commissioner in the regional capital of Kaduna.

"He watched his captors' prayer time. They always prayed for 15 minutes. And yesterday they did not lock the door to his cell," Adeleye said. "While they were at prayer he sneaked out and began to run."

Collomp stopped a motorcycle taxi and had it take him to the nearest police station, from where he was brought to Kaduna.

Adeleye said Collomp had been held in the city of Kano after his abduction and about two months ago brought to Zaria.

"He's hale and hearty," Adeleye said.