In 2008, a young Somali man was convicted of the rape of a 48-year-old woman at a Doncaster nightclub. The woman had been found unconscious in a locked toilet cubicle with her pants down: she had no recollection of the previous four hours. Had she been sexually assaulted?

Swabs were taken and sent to the Victoria Police Forensic Services Department; the tests proved positive for sperm and the incident officially became a rape case. DNA testing on the sperm matched a sample taken only 24 hours before by police in another case – that of 19-year-old Farah Jama. Jama and some friends had been accused of sexually assaulting a young woman; the police had found semen in her hair, and the DNA was Jama’s. Though this woman later said that the encounter had been consensual, Jama’s DNA remained on file. For the police, judge and jury involved with the Doncaster nightclub rape trial, here was an open and shut case – science doesn’t lie.

But the case wasn’t logical; Farah was from Footscray, he didn’t drive, he didn’t drink, and you had to be over 28 to gain entry to the Doncaster venue. The nightclub had tight security with bouncers on every door, and CCTV everywhere. No one saw a young black man that night. Yet these inconsistencies weren’t questioned until a year after Farah’s conviction.

Julie Szego’s account of this case is an absolutely enthralling work.

Mark Rubbo