Ward's defense attorney, Andrew Rankin, QC, refuted the prosecution contentions, insisting the forensic evidence presented could be easily explained as sourcing from cross-contamination and describing his client as a "female Walter Mitty" character, for whom fantasy had become reality, who was perhaps seeking notoriety in Irish folklore. Referencing the "rambling, incoherent and improbable" statements Ward had made to police, Rankin outlined the numerous inconsistencies and alterations she had made which indicated she had not been telling the truth and stressed to the jury the IRA would be extremely unlikely to accept or to trust an individual of sheer incompetence and who had, prior to 1974, come to the attention of the police and the Army in both Northern Ireland and England on several occasions.