Appeal Court hearing over Simon Hall murder conviction

A Court of Appeal hearing into the case of a man jailed for life for murdering a 79-year-old woman in Suffolk is to begin later.

Simon Hall, now 33, of Ipswich, was jailed in 2003 for murdering Joan Albert at her home in Capel St Mary.

In October last year the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) raised concerns over key evidence.

The court is due to hear from a forensic expert who has cast doubt on fibre evidence at the original trial.

In October last year a CCRC spokesman said the referral of Hall's case to the Court of Appeal was based on "fresh forensic analysis of fibre samples taken from the crime scene and other locations during the original police investigation".

The spokesman said the CCRC believed that "new forensic evidence is capable of undermining key forensic evidence".

The importance of the fibre evidence was highlighted in 2007 by barrister Keir Starmer QC, now Director of Public Prosecutions, when he told the BBC: "Simon Hall's case is really peculiar because there is no particular reason to believe he is guilty of this offence.

"The one crucial link is the fibre evidence. Break this and the case disappears."

Hall has always protested his innocence and is appealing against his conviction.

Jurors at the original trial were told that fingerprints, footprints and DNA evidence found at the scene of the murder did not match those belonging to Hall.

But fibres from a pair of black trousers, in his car and in a cupboard at his parent's home, linked him to the murder, the prosecution forensic expert said at the time.