Ipswich: Murderer Appeals in Supreme Court

13 March 2014, 11:14 | Updated: 13 March 2014, 11:47

Kevin Nunn is serving a life sentence for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, but insists he didn't do it.

Nunn was convicted in 2006 for the murder of ex-girlfriend Dawn Walker after her body was found by a river in Bury St Edmunds, but his legal team say the evidence needs to be retested.

His legal team are at the Supreme Court today trying to force Suffolk police into handing over key forensic evidence that they say wasn't properly examined at the time.

He was denied permission to appeal his conviction in 2007, and in 2012 his attempts to get Suffolk Police to grant access to evidence were also turned down.

Some of the evidence includes bodily fluids that were found at the scene of the crime, from which investigators couldn't get a full DNA profile.

Solicitor James Saunders said: "The infamous cases of Stephen Lawrence, Damilola Taylor and Rachel Nickell were all solved when cold case reviews found evidence missed in the original investigation.

"In Mr Nunn's case, we know the killer must have touched certain items on which he could have left his DNA. Sperm was found on Ms Walker's body which could not have come from Mr Nunn, who had a vasectomy, but which the technology at the time could not profile. There have been major advances in DNA profiling since 2006 which hold out the real prospect of a breakthrough coming out of a cold case review.

"If Mr Nunn does not have the right to have the case reviewed, we face the worrying possibility of an innocent man rotting in jail when the evidence that might exonerate him is locked in a store at the police station. Equally worrying is that if Mr Nunn is innocent, the real killer is still out there, free to attack someone else.''

Prosecutors claim he killed Miss Walker in a jealous rage after she left him for a man with whom she had previously had a relationship.

Describing his original murder trial, Nunn's sister Brigitte Butcher, who lives in Norfolk, said: "There was character assassination in the courtroom that he was lying and he was jealous. Perhaps he was jealous but not to the extent that he would kill Dawn.

"He had no previous convictions, he had only ever had a parking ticket.

"There wasn't one piece of evidence against Kevin. Poor Dawn's death was a hideous ordeal that she went through, but there wasn't anything against Kevin forensically."