DNA to catch Rally critics
POLICE have called on DNA evidence in a bid to link married couple Scott Sledge and Daniele Marie Voinot-Sledge to protest graffiti sprayed on a Tweed road during the Repco Rally in September.
Sledge, 61, one of the rally’s most outspoken critics as spokesperson of the No Rally Group, was originally the only person charged in relation to protests of the event but Voinot-Sledge recently received a notice to appear in court over the same section of graffiti on Kyogle Road near Murwillumbah.
In her first appearance at Murwillumbah Local Court yesterday, Voinot-Sledge, 62, entered a plea of not guilty to destroy or damage property through solicitor Ralph James. The Nimbin woman joins her husband in a fight against the charge after he also pleaded not guilty in October.
Police allege the couple are responsible for 17 separate acts of graffiti, each with lettering about 1m in height, over 13km of Kyogle Road painted sometime between 11.45pm on September 2 and 8.47am on September 3.
The court heard yesterday only a partial brief of evidence had been served on Mr James and Police Prosecutor Sergeant Brett Gradisnik said there was still a wait on DNA evidence sent to a laboratory in Sydney more than a month ago.
Sgt Gradisnik couldn’t give a precise date as to when the DNA would be ready and Magistrate Michael Dakin adjourned the case until January 20.
