Backpacker murderer loses appeal

A man jailed in 2007 for murdering German backpacker Birgit Brauer has lost an appeal against his conviction and sentence.

Michael Scott Wallace was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 18 years after the body of Ms Bauer, 28, was found beaten and stabbed at Lucy's Gully, southwest of New Plymouth, in 2005.

She had been hitch-hiking from Wanganui to Taranaki when Wallace picked her up in a ute and took her to a bush area where her body was later found by a jogger. Wallace was linked to the crime through multiple sightings and fingerprint and DNA evidence.

Wallace appealed through lawyer Greg King on the basis that he was not adequately represented at his trial and the jury was misled in terms of the strength of the Crown's forensic evidence.

The Court of Appeal decision released today said while scientific questions had been raised over the LCN (low copy number) DNA testing used in the case, the court maintained such evidence was clearly explained to the jury, along with appropriate cautions.

LCN DNA profiling needs a high degree of scientific knowledge to be carried out and has been criticised in some criminal cases around the world.

However, despite any impugned forensic evidence, the Court of Appeal said in the Wallace case there was still a strong circumstantial case which would have on its own merits been enough for a jury to return a guilty verdict.

The court maintained LCN DNA profiling was not inherently unreliable.

In terms of the sentence, which Mr King argued had an incorrect minimum period applied, the appeal court justices maintained it fairly reflected what was a ferocious and clinical crime committed by a man with a string of serious convictions including rape.

The justices dismissed the appeal against conviction, the sentence appeal and an application to adduce further evidence.

- NZPA