Police evidence gathering was thrust under the spotlight during the Cooper twins murder trial yesterday.

As the high-profile case entered its second week, the head of the Forensic Support Unit took to the witness stand amid allegations key evidence was moved by detectives before he got to the scene.

Inspector Junior Watts attended a ground floor flat on Crown Hill Lane, Devonshire, on March 15 last year.

The trial heard last week how Kenneth Burgess allegedly launched a violent baseball bat attack on twin brothers Jahmal and Jahmil Cooper at the lower floor apartment on March 13. Co-accused Dennis Alma Robinson stood guard on the door to prevent the 20 year olds escaping, the prosecution claims.

Burgess, 33, from Hamilton Parish, and Robinson, 34, from Southampton, both deny murdering the twins.

Insp. Watts told the court yesterday he noticed a dark stain just outside the door of the ground floor site ? which was under Police guard by the afternoon of March 15. Preliminary tests indicated it may have been blood, he added.

Inside the apartment, he told Crown counsel Paula Tyndale he searched for evidence of an assault.

Insp. Watts said he spotted dark stains on a mallet, on the top of a wooden table and on some stepladders. There were also similar stains on tiles in the bathroom and on a window in the main room, the jury heard. ?Presumptive? blood tests on the table top, mallet and ladder were positive.

Insp. Watts said he returned to Crown Hill Lane at about 5 p.m. the same day and this time searched the upper apartment in the same block.

The forensics chief told the court a grey Fubu sports shirt with dark stains below the neck was found in a white plastic bathroom hamper. Early tests suggested this may have been blood, Insp. Watts said, and more tests were requested.

Other items seized from a bedroom during the search of the property included a pair of size 13 Nike trainers, a grey sleeveless vest, a grey shirt and three pairs of jeans.

On March 17, Insp. Watts was part of the Police team that returned to the lower apartment after a fire at the site. ?There was smoke coming from the windows and firefighters were at the scene,? he said. ?The walls were covered in soot.?

He also went to Abbot?s Cliff when the twins? decomposing bodies were recovered on April 13, the jury heard. He caught and preserved insects flying around the brothers? bodies and also collected maggots for evidence to help work out how long the bodies had been at the remote location.

Insp. Watts ? who has more than ten years experience in the field ? said he had received forensic and crime scene investigation training in the UK.

During cross-examination Courtenay Griffiths QC, for Burgess, said there had been at least three detectives with the Inspector at the upper apartment on March 15.

Mr. Griffiths asked the witness whether Police had ?strategically? placed the stained Fubu shirt at the top of a pile of clothes in the bathroom hamper.

Insp. Watts said that apart from the force photographer, he was the first person to enter the bathroom during the search ? although he later admitted he could not comment on what had happened during any other part of the day.

Mr. Griffiths, raising questions about contamination of evidence, also asked if the witness was aware Police had already searched the flat when he arrived there for the first time. Insp. Watts said he was aware officers had already attended the scene, but was not aware there had been any search.

The defence barrister also asked why the Fubu shirt had been taken out of brown paper bag and placed in a larger one on arrival at Police forensic offices. Mr. Griffiths asked whether the first bag had been sealed at the scene to prevent contamination and why it had not been taped up, as the witness had been taught in training. The witness, who claimed time and preserving the stains were factors under consideration at the time, said he was satisfied with the process of securing the bag at the scene ? by folding it over ? and then sealing it with tape immediately after the search.

John Perry QC, for Robinson, questioned the impact the fire had on forensic evidence in the apartment. He asked the witness about pieces of stained wall plaster taken from the apartment on March 18, after the fire.

Insp. Watts, however, told the court that the Canadian laboratory where the chippings were due to be sent for examination did not agree to take them because they were removed in the wake of the blaze.

The high security trial, before Chief Justice Richard Ground and due to last four weeks, continues.