OFFICERS visited Whant at home on February 7, 2011, to seize the clothes he was wearing on the evening of February 4.

The clothes were sent for forensic examination, where dilute blood stains were found on three areas of his light blue shirt. Miss Grender’s DNA was recovered from samples from the inside left cuff and the back of the shirt, but no DNA could be recovered from a sample from the collar.

Evidence of blood staining was also found on the inside of Whant’s black jacket, which again matched Miss Grender’s DNA.

Whant’s silver Ford Focus was seized in the early hours of February 8, and during examination blood staining matching Miss Grender’s DNA was found on the rubber mat beneath the footwell carpet on the driver’s side of the car and also on the carpet covering it.

During the prosecution opening, jury members were made aware of Whant’s “pronounced stammer”, but despite struggling with a few words Whant took to the witness stand on the first day of the defence case and was able to give evidence to the packed courtroom.

Prosecutor Gregg Taylor asked him to explain how if he had not been to Miss Grender’s flat at the time of her death, his clothes were found to be stained with her blood.

Whant said he had no explanation as to how blood matching Miss Grender’s DNA got on his shirt, jacket and in the footwell of his car.