A new video version of the traditional Police line-up has been used in a Supreme Court trial for the first time.

The jury hearing the case of a man accused of sexual assault and burglary was shown how the complainant picked out the accused from a series of video clips.

The method superseded the old technique which involved victims viewing real line-ups through one way glass.

The new system gives detectives access to more than 20,000 video clips to compile a virtual line-up.

According to prosecutors, it was beneficial in this case as it saved Police the onerous task of having to find eight similar looking Indian men from Bermuda to take part in the ID parade.

Instead, they picked out images from the international video clip database with the input of the defendant and his lawyer.

A week after the alleged incident is said to have taken place, the complainant viewed them along with a clip of the accused - and picked him out.

The jury hearing the case viewed the same process on a big screen in the courtroom earlier this week.

Ater around two hours of deliberations, the jury last week cleared the man of both charges. He had strongly protested that he was not the person who followed the 23-year-old to her home and sexually assaulted her after a night out in Hamilton on September 11, telling the court it was a case of mistaken identity.

Granting the man his freedom after the verdict, Puisne Justice Carlisle Greaves said while he did not point the finger of blame at him, he was certain the young woman was indeed attacked by someone that night.

Detectives have used video line ups in their investigations on 12 occasions in recent months, but this case was the first in which the technique was shared with a jury in court.

Praising the virtues of the new system, Crown Counsel Robert Welling told The Royal Gazette: "The benefits to both parties is that for the defendant or suspect it means you can get a much closer match. In Bermuda (before) to do a lineup the Police would have to go on to the streets and find a match.

"This guy is Indian so it is not that easy in Bermuda, so he gets a fairer identification parade. The benefit to the complainant is it's done far quicker and doesn't require her to be in the same building as the suspect."

In terms of how he felt the jury responded, he added: "I think it's really impactive and it's patently fair. It looked very fair. It's a far more sophisticated means of doing an ID parade."

It is anticipated that the new technique, brought in as part of a host of reforms under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, will become a regular feature in trials in future.