A JUDGE has ruled that key scientific evidence found beneath the fingernails of Hampshire DNA expert Helena Greenwood can be used in the trial of the man accused of killing her.

David Frediani is accused of murdering Dr Greenwood in San Fransisco on August 22, 1985 - just 21 days before she was due to testify that he raped her at gunpoint.

The former Southampton Grammar School for Girls pupil had been strangled. Her body was left in her front yard.

The trial, which is expected to last three to six weeks, is due to begin in San Diego this month. If convicted, Frediani, 45, pictured, faces life imprisonment without parole.

At the time of her death Frediani, who works as a phone company analyst, was awaiting trial for seriously assaulting her a year earlier. Dr Greenwood was due to testify that Frediani had broken into her Northern California home and raped her.

Frediani has denied murdering her.

Last year, San Diego police made a major breakthrough when they matched DNA found on Dr Greenwood to Frediani. In an earlier court hearing, a prosecution expert said the chances that it could have come from another person were 230,000,000,000 to one.

In court in San Diego, his lawyer, David Bartick, argued that the equipment used to test the DNA and link it to Frediani had not been fully accepted by the scientific community and, as a result, should not be used in the trial.

Prosecutor Valerie Summers argued that the technique was well understood and not controversial.

Superior Court Judge John Einhorn ruled the evidence could be heard.

Dr Greenwood, originally from Southamp-ton, moved to Atherton, San Fransisco, in 1977 with her long-time love Roger Franklin.

She worked in DNA analysis, specialising in its development as a forensic detection tool.

Lawyers are scheduled to begin picking a jury for the trial on November 27.

Her father Sydney Greenwood, 87, lives in Lymington.

Her mother died two weeks before her daughter. Roger Franklin died from cancer last year.