New witnesses in Charlotte appeal

The body of Charlotte Pinkney has never been found

Lawyers for the man serving life for the murder of Devon teenager Charlotte Pinkney have said two more potential witnesses have been identified.

Scaffolder Nicholas Rose, 23, was found guilty in February last year and sentenced to at least 20 years for murdering Charlotte, 16, in Ilfracombe.

The teenager vanished in February 2004, but her body has never been found.

Appeal Court judges have ordered Rose's appeal to be relisted and heard at the first available date.

Sex argument

On Thursday Rose's defence lawyer, Jonathan Barnes, told judges in London that two witnesses may give evidence relating to sightings of Charlotte Pinkney after the date Rose was said to have killed her.

Mr Barnes said: "I have no difficulty in indicating that one of the two witnesses is very straightforward - potentially it is another sighting of the missing or dead girl, after the date when the Crown say the appellant committed the murder."

Rose, 24, of Foreland View, Cairn Road, Ilfracombe, Devon, was jailed for life at Exeter Crown Court last year.

The Crown contended Rose murdered the teenager, probably during an argument over sex after a party in February 2004.

She had got into a car driven by him, but another man in the vehicle said that, when he got out to knock at the door of a house they had stopped at, the car drove off.

Nicholas Rose's appeal will be heard in London

Rose was granted permission to challenge the verdict, on grounds including complaints relating to whether certain evidence should have gone before the jury and about the judge's summing up.

On the issue of "fresh evidence", Lord Justice Moore-Bick noted one witness was to be called on behalf of Rose, while the Appeal Court would consider the written statements of another witness for the appellant and four for the Crown.

Mr Barnes then told the judges that the defence had identified two other potential witnesses, who will have to be spoken to by the solicitors and who will possibly be called to give evidence.

Rose's appeal had originally been listed for Thursday, but Lord Justice Moore-Bick, sitting with Mr Justice Lloyd Jones and Judge Findlay Baker QC, ordered it to be relisted and heard at the first available date, not before 27 March.