Teresa Cormack's killer loses DNA challenge

The case of murdered schoolgirl Teresa Cormack will not be reopened for her killer, Jules Mikus, to challenge the DNA evidence that helped convict him.

The Court of Appeal today refused to appoint a lawyer to help Mikus or order re-testing of DNA samples.

In 2002 Mikus was found guilty of abducting, raping and murdering six-year-old Teresa who was killed in 1987.

Her body was found in a shallow grave at Whirinaki beach, north of Napier, a week after she went missing.

The development of DNA analysis led to Mikus' arrest more than 10 years after Teresa was murdered, although he had been a suspect at the time because of his previous sexual offending.

In 2008 he asked to be able to appeal his conviction even though he was five and a half years late in filing the appeal papers.

The Court of Appeal said in its decision issued today that there was no proper excuse for the delay in filing the appeal.

None of the grounds Mikus wanted to raise had any merit, the court said.