A former Royal Navy sailor in prison for 16 years for a murder he says he did not commit, has failed to win his release on bail pending a fresh appeal.

But lawyers acting for Michael Shirley will go back to the Court of Appeal in London next month to renew his bail application in the light of new scientific tests on trial exhibits.

Shirley, from Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, was an 18-year-old naval rating when he was jailed for life in 1987 for the rape and murder of barmaid 24-year-old Linda Cook in Portsmouth.

He completed the recommended minimum 15 years of his life sentence last year, but was refused parole because he still protested his innocence and so "failed to address his offending".

Michael Shirley has always claimed he was innocent

Shirley's counsel, Alan Masters, told Mr Justice Roderick-Evans on Tuesday that fresh tests had been carried out on slides containing samples recovered after the murder.

The tests revealed DNA, not only from Shirley and the victim, but also from an unknown third person who, the defence will argue, was the real killer.

'Cinderella murder'

This new evidence was "devastating", said Mr Masters, and rendered the conviction unsafe.

The jury at Shirley's trial in 1988 heard that the victim's jaw and spine were broken and her larynx crushed by the heel of the killer, leaving a logo imprint from the sole of his shoe.

The police hunt for the shoes - 250 pairs of which had been sold in Portsmouth that year alone - led to the case being dubbed the Cinderella murder.

Initial appeal moves failed, but Shirley's case has now been referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Throughout his years in prison, Shirley has staged roof-top protests, held a seven-week hunger strike and written hundreds of letters protesting his innocence.

Leave to appeal

His case was taken up by Warwick and Leamington Labour MP James Plaskitt in 1997.

Last April, the Criminal Cases Review Commission granted Shirley leave to appeal against his case.

However by April 2002, a date had still not been set, prompting the former sailor to threaten a second hunger strike.

The case took another turn in May when it was revealed that the clothes Shirley wore on the night Ms Cook was killed, had turned up in the possession of Hampshire Police.

Until then, it was believed that the clothes had been destroyed after the trial.