The Court of Appeal has been asked to overturn the conviction of a man who pleaded guilty to a firearms charge — based on DNA evidence now deemed to be flawed.

Kofi Dill, 46, was sentenced to eight years behind bars by the Supreme Court in 2011 after he admitted handling a Rexio RJ Series .38 Calibre Special revolver.

While he has since completed his sentence, the Court of Appeal heard yesterday that Mr Dill’s plea was tainted by faulty DNA evidence produced by forensics expert Candy Zuleger, of Florida-based Trinity DNA Solutions, which contained “numerous mistakes”.

Susan Mulligan, counsel for Mr Dill, said the flawed DNA evidence presented to him meant that he could not make a properly informed decision as to whether he should plead guilty.

She said: “That is the most fundamental right to any defendant before the criminal court — to know the case against them and be able to make an informed decision.

“He had the right to contest the case and know what he was actually facing.”

At the hearing yesterday, Adley Duncan, for the Crown, accepted that the evidence had “tainted” the guilty plea.

While Mr Duncan said that the evidence against Mr Dill was strong enough that, as a prosecutor, he would have pursued the case even without the DNA evidence, he acknowledged that it had clearly influenced Mr Dill’s decision to plead guilty.

Mr Duncan noted that before the evidence was presented, Mr Dill had expressed an intention to bring the case to trial, and told officers that he did not believe his DNA was on the weapon.

Mr Duncan told the court that if the conviction was quashed, the Crown would not seek to bring Mr Dill to a retrial.

He also referenced Mr Dill’s affidavit, in which he said he thought a jury would believe Ms Zuleger’s evidence over his own.

Mr Dill added in his affidavit that if he had been more informed and had enough money, he would have sought to hire a defence DNA expert to counter Ms Zuleger’s evidence at trial.

The Court of Appeal reserved judgment until a later date.

Mr Dill’s case was reopened as part of a review launched in the wake of the quashing last year of the murder and attempted murder convictions of Julian Washington, also because of flawed DNA evidence.

Cindy Clarke, the Director of Public Prosecutions, announced in August that the review of 273 cases was complete, with two more unsafe convictions identified.

Mr Dill’s is the second of those; the first was Anwar Muhammad, who had his 2012 convictions for attempted murder and using a firearm overturned in the Court of Appeal in June.

Mr Dill’s case involved a loaded firearm that was recovered by police on December 22, 2010, in the government gate area of Pembroke.

He admitted handling the gun, but pleaded not guilty to handling a .38 calibre bullet, with the charge left to lie on file.

A 22-year-old female co-defendant denied handling the same firearm and the Crown opted not to proceed with the case against her.

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