THE case against serial rape suspect Antoni Imiela was not the well-bound package that the prosecution had set out, a jury was told today.

Defence counsel, Rebecca Poulet QC, said the court had heard it was an all or nothing situation and that one man, namely Mr Imiela, was the person committing the offences.

Opening her closing speech she said the prosecution relied on the view that it was an unbroken circle of offences which centred around several attacks with key evidence.

"They say to us there is a chain of proof or reasoning to the other offences on the indictment," Mrs Poulet said. "That circle, which to a great extent depends on being unbroken, is in fact fractured. It does not meet in the tidy way that the crown suggest."

She went on to tell the jury that every verdict they gave mattered, before warning them not to be prejudiced.

They had to be comfortable that all the attacks were committed by one person.

Mrs Poulet spoke about the DNA findings and said mistakes could happen. She re-iterated how the defence expert had not been able to test the DNA found following the attack on a 10-year-old girl in Ashford in November 2001, because the sample had deteriorated.

The jury has already heard that this forensic evidence produced a one in a billion match for Mr Imiela, 49, of Heathside, Appledore, near Ashford.

The girl's description of the attacker differed dramatically from that of the defendant, said Mrs Poulet, pointing to the brown or black hair the child had mentioned and his younger appearance.

The jury was also told how Mr Imiela's wife, Christine, had previously told the court that she thought her husband had arrived home that night (November 15) at 8.30pm. The attack is said to have taken place after 9pm.

Mr Imiela denies nine charges of rape, one of attempted rape, indecent assault and kidnap between November 2001 and November 2002.

The trial continues.