THE jury in the case of a suspected serial rapist has been told to put any feelings of revulsion to one side and consider the evidence in a dispassionate manner.

As he summed up the case against Antoni Imiela, Mr Justice Owen said to the five men and seven women must be unclouded by their feelings when they come to their verdict.

"You may have heard evidence which aroused feelings of revulsion, sympathy, distress or dismay," he told Maidstone Crown Court.

"You must put all such feelings and emotions firmly to one side. They must not be allowed to influence your judgement. You must consider the evidence in a calm and dispassionate manner."

Mr Imiela, 49, of Heathside, Appledore, near Ashford, denies nine charges of rape, one of attempted rape, indecent assault and kidnap between November 2001 and November 2002, including an attack on a 10-year-old Ashford girl.

He sat expressionless in the dock as the closing address was made.

Mr Justice Owen went on to detail the importance and relevance of DNA expert evidence and what he described as "similar fact evidence" between the rape charges.

He said: "It's the prosecution case that the circumstances of each of the offences so closely resemble each other, the only reasonable conclusion is they are all committed by one person."

The jury could, if there was evidence to link Mr Imiela to one offence, consider this when looking at the other offences, he said, but not if they believed the attacks were not committed by the same person.

The judge highlighted the links the prosecution drew between each offence, such as the description, nature of the attacks and locations, but pointed out Mr Imiela said in court he was not the rapist.

He then went on to detail the evidence concerning the rape of a 10-year-old girl on the Stanhope Estate, Ashford, in November 2001.

Forensic evidence found on the girl revealed a one in a billion chance match with Mr Imiela.

The jury were asked to consider the defence's argument that the little girl may have picked up some of the defendant's DNA if she fell in an area where he was known to have had liaisons with a prostitute.

"Or is it an attempt to explain the otherwise unexplainable," the judge said.

The summing up is expected to continue into tomorrow.

The trial continues.