Man awaits verdict for attempted kidnap
The lawyer for a man accused of trying to shove a 70-year-old woman into his car boot says the prosecution had not eliminated the possibility that another person was responsible.
Eamon Merritt Sumner, 28, has pleaded not guilty to attempted kidnapping and causing harm with intent to cause harm to the woman on August 19, 2012, on a suburban Adelaide street.
The woman told the South Australian District Court she had been walking her dog when she saw a man near a carwash and felt "a little apprehensive".
She later walked past him when he dragged her and tried to put her into his open boot.
When she pulled at his hoodie, he threw her on the ground, banged her head on the cement and stamped on her face.
In closing submissions on Tuesday, Sumner's lawyer, Greg Mead SC, noted his client had admitted lying in the witness box in relation to some events.
He asked Judge Wayne Chivell, who heard the trial without a jury, to accept Sumner's explanations for the lying, saying it did not take away from the essence of his evidence that he was not the attacker.
"In my submission, the prosecution has not eliminated that as a rational hypothesis," he said.
Mr Mead also suggested that CCTV footage of the man the victim saw at the car wash depicted someone other than Sumner.
"The man depicted does not have a great physical resemblance to the accused," he said.
The judge will deliver his verdict on an unspecified date.
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