A defence lawyer attacked sloppy handling of blood evidence as he launched an appeal for Stanford Glenfield Archibald, who was jailed for the 1985 murder of a man with a concrete block.

Archibald, 39, formerly of Somerset, had denied killing Aaron Easton in May, 1985, but was jailed for life last July.

Easton?s body was found in a pool of blood on Laffan Street, Pembroke. Archibald was arrested in 2001 when he returned to Bermuda after living in Scotland.

Archibald was convicted using DNA evidence taken from the concrete block used to kill Mr. Easton.

But yesterday defence lawyer Mark Pettingill said there had been sloppy handling of the DNA evidence as the doctor in charge had been unsure of whether he had taken two or three vials of blood from Archibald.

He said: ?It was sloppy and there was a possibility an error could have occurred in the taking of the sample and what was ultimately extracted as DNA.

?There was a number of other suspects in this case and a number of other samples taken on the ground.?

He said there was a risk of cross contamination, although he admitted it could not be proved.

However, Mr. Pettingill was asked by Court of Appeal president Edward Zacca what relevance a possible third missing vial had.

Mr. Pettingill said Mr. Archibald?s defence had been that it wasn?t his blood on the block.

He said trial judge Norma Wade-Miller had given improper direction to the jury by saying the defence had a duty to prove every allegation that there were mistakes in evidence gathering.

She had pointed to an area of law which said the defence had to prove allegations of misconduct but Mr. Pettingill said he was not alleging this ? only that mistakes were made.

He said: ?The judge?s direction to the jury had the effect of placing the burden of proof on the defence.?

Mrs. Norma Wade-Miller had failed to give proper direction about the evidence of prosecution witness Troy Shorter, said Mr. Pettingill. He said Shorter had admitted under oath he was a convicted murderer, a liar, had co-operated with the Crown in order to get moved to an easier cell block and had a grudge against Archibald.

He said: ?The learned trial judge erred in law in failing to draw the jury?s attention to the indications in Mr. Shorter?s evidence which justified the inference that his evidence was tainted by an improper motive.?

Shorter bore a grudge against Archibald who he had accused of setting him up over the 1986 Hayward robbery which led to his life sentence, said Mr. Pettingill.

Roger Redman was killed in Hayward?s Grocery in Warwick, during an armed robbery in which Stanford Archibald was also involved, although he was not convicted of the murder.

Mr. Pettingill also said the judge had failed to properly put Archibald?s defence to the jury and had failed to properly direct on identification evidence.

He is appealing for Archibald?s conviction to be quashed because of material irregularities which prejudiced him and argued there had been a substantial miscarriage of justice.

The prosecution are set to contest the appeal today.