Exhibits relating to a schoolgirl’s murder were found after a restructuring of an archive system was carried out, a court heard.

Mold Crown Court heard that evidence relating to the death of Flint schoolgirl Janet Commins in 1976 could not be located for several years.

An audit of all archive material being carried out ahead of changes to the archive system at the Forensic Science Service site in Chorley, where evidence was stored, led to the evidence being discovered.

Stephen Anthony Hough, 58, of Maes Y Dre in Flint, is charged with the murder, rape and sexual assault of Janet Commins, with an alternate charge of manslaughter. He denies the charges.

The court heard from Paul Fawshaw, who worked as customer services manager at the Forensic Science Service. He stated that as part of his role, he led a large scale overhaul of the archive system in 2003.

Mr Fawshaw said that prior to the overhaul, there had been a number of occasions where requests had been made for boxes of exhibits but they could not be accounted for.

He added: “We needed to find out what we had on the site.”

A six month audit was carried out to find out everything that was on site, before the new archive system was put into place.

The court heard that after the work to audit the stores had begun, he was asked if he had located any boxes regarding the Janet Commins case.

He said: “I knew I had found a box with 1976 exhibits, so I went to check that box and found the exhibits.”

He said the box was in a storage area for ‘live files’ rather than in the archive where it should have been. He added that he believed the box had been put there when a previous attempt to audit the archives had been carried out.

The court also heard from Paul Hewitt, who previously worked as a DNA analyst for the Forensic Science Service.

Mr Hewitt carried out the DNA extraction work on some of the microscopic slides, in 2007. He discussed the method he would have taken when carrying out the work, and the checks that were in place to ensure there was no contamination.

Mark Heywood QC, prosecuting, asked what would be done if any problems were to arise during the course of the extraction work.

Mr Hewitt said: “We had a ‘Quality Management System’ document that goes through the process stage by stage with troubleshooting information, but I would ask advice from a senior colleague if needed.”

He was asked what he would do if he found evidence of contamination or damage, and again said he would have consulted a senior colleague. Mr Hewitt confirmed that he did not find any such evidence while carrying out his work.

Under cross examination by the defence, Mr Hewitt was asked why some slides were not tested until months after the others.

He stated that the only reason he could think of was that instructions to extract further DNA came at a later date.

Janet Commins’ body was found under a hedge in a school playing field in Flint on January 11, 1976 and it sparked a major police investigation at the time.

A second man was previously jailed for the manslaughter after admitting responsibility for her death.

Hough was interviewed at the time of Janet’s death, but said he was in his car masturbating and had been syphoning fuel from a car.

Proceeding