A man's murder conviction should be quashed because a prosecutor accused him of being a liar on her Facebook page, the Court of Appeal heard yesterday.

Antoine Anderson's lawyer, Shade Subair, said the comments made by junior Crown counsel Takiyah Burgess may have "unduly influenced" the jury against him.

The jury eventually found Anderson and his brother-in-law Philip Bradshaw guilty of shooting Aquil Richardson dead on Boxing Day 2007.

Ms Burgess posted two "status updates" on the popular social networking site as Anderson was on the witness stand on February 11, 2009.

The first, seven minutes before he started his testimony, stated: "Takiyah is in court ready for the lies."

The next, two hours into his evidence, said: "Takiyah is listening to a pack of lies."

They were spotted that evening by Anderson's original defence lawyer, Elizabeth Christopher, who asked her to take them down. Ms Burgess refused, instead updating her status to "Takiyah don't like to be woken up for B.S."

They were finally removed the next morning, after Chief Justice Richard Ground threatened to jail her if she didn't.

The incident prompted Anderson's British Queen's Counsel Benjamin Nolan and Bradshaw's lawyer Anesta Weekes QC to ask Mr. Justice Ground to halt the trial and discharge the jury. They said they were concerned jury members may have seen or heard about the comments, and been biased as a result.

The jury was not privy to these legal arguments and was told nothing of the Facebook incident.

The Chief Justice refused to throw out the case, saying there no evidence any juror saw the remarks. Ms Burgess was later fined $1,000 and admonished by her professional body, the Bar Council, over the incident.

Launching an appeal against Anderson's conviction yesterday, his new lawyer Shade Subair argued that the Chief Justice should have halted the trial. She conceded she had no evidence that any juror saw the remarks since they could not be asked without alerting them to the problem.

However, she said there was a "very high risk" the comments "travelled at great speed" in the small community of Bermuda and "unduly influenced" the jury.

President Justice Edward Zacca said Ms Subair was "speculating a lot" and Justice Sir Murray Stuart-Smith said he was not persuaded by the argument.

Ms Subair then made a number of other points centring on comments by various witnesses that Anderson was "ignorant" and "dangerous" and suggesting he was of previous bad character.

She also cited an instance where prosecutor Michael McColm suggested wrongly that Anderson could be heard on a covert tape recording saying, "I killed Aquil." Ms Subair argued that the jury should not have heard these things as they were prejudicial.

However, the appeals judges pointed out that the defence lawyer at trial, Mr. Nolan QC, did not ask for the case to be thrown out over Mr. McColm's remark, or raise objections to the comments by the witnesses. Ms Subair suggested he should have done so.

The appeal continues, with Bradshaw's lawyer, Marc Daniels, scheduled to argue against his conviction too.