Forensic scientists explain their conclusion that murder suspect David Newton’s DNA was found on Una Crown

Forensic scientists took to the witness box in court today to explain the DNA they found while examining Una Crown’s body.

In 2023, ten years after the 86-year-old was murdered, David Newton’s DNA was found on some of Una Crown’s fingernail clippings.

He denies the murder of the widow, who was found dead by her nephew in her bungalow on Magazine Lane in Wisbech.

The trial continued today at Cambridge Crown Court, as the jury heard from forensic scientist Steven Harrington, who first carried out tests on Mrs Crown’s body and in the bungalow.

Mr Harrington said that it was hard to obtain forensic evidence from Mrs Crown, due to parts of her body being burnt, and clothing being soaked in blood.

He said that Mrs Crown had “not been standing or moved around while bleeding heavily” due to the amount of blood found to be soaked into the carpet where her body was found.

Rachel Pollard, who is also a forensic scientist, carried out further examinations from evidence kept from 2013.

She said that only two fingernail clippings were tested initially, but all five clippings were further tested ten years later.

She said that she had “very strong support” that the DNA found on fingernail clippings belonged to Newton.

She said that when coming to her conclusion, she didn’t take into consideration that Newton lived just yards away from Mrs Crown.

It was ruled out that anybody sharing similar DNA to Newton, including brothers and male cousins, had their DNA found on Mrs Crown’s fingernail clippings.

Not up to date with what’s been said in court? Click the following links to find previous coverage of day one, two and three and four of the trial last week as well as yesterday.

The trial continues.