A forensic scientist told a court there was no concrete evidence which exclusively linked Stephen Hughes with the murder of Rachel Barraclough.

Mrs Pauline Simon described her findings as "very limited scientific evidence".

She told the Leeds murder trial none of Rachel's blood was found on any of the clothes he had been wearing, despite painstaking, sensitive tests.

Hughes, 46, of Stanley Street, Wakefield, denies murdering Rachel, 18, of Bankfoot, Bradford, whose body was found near the River Calder, Wakefield. She had been stabbed to death and her throat cut.

Her clothing, and those of Mr Hughes, was examined to see if fibres had been exchanged in any encounter. Nothing was found.

Both were wearing smooth, shiny clothes that would not distribute or retain fibres.

A trace of sperm was discovered on Rachel's face but there was too little to carry out a DNA test, to see who it had come from.

Mrs Simon commenting on a single body hair, which the prosecution say Rachel snatched during the sexually motivated attack, said: "I found the recovered hair similar in colour and microscopic appearance to Stephen Hughes's."

She added that DNA tests narrowed it down even further but still it could not be "uniquely attributed" to Hughes.

Police teams searched a stretch of the River Calder but the knife thought to have killed her was not, and never has been, found.

The court heard how Rachel's bag, discovered 100 yards from her body, was also bloodstained.

Mrs Simon was asked if she would have expected blood to be on the hands of the assailant.

She replied: "Yes, I consider it likely that some blood would be transferred but I would not expect the clothing to be extensively or heavily bloodstained.

"There was little spattered blood - just a few spots on the body."

The trial continues.

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