Lawyers for Sean Hodgson will try to sue the Forensic Science Service after the Appeal Court heard that its errors kept him in prison for more than a decade when his innocence could have been proved. The service, a government-owned company, was contacted in 1998 and asked if exhibits from the case could be retested.

Those examinations would have involved DNA testing which would have proven that Mr Hodgson was not responsible for the rape and murder. But the service was said to have replied by saying that no exhibits were retained.

Sarah Whitehouse, for the prosecution, told the court yesterday that this had been “plainly erroneous information” and that the matter had been referred for further investigation.

The Hodgson family said the alleged error was “disgraceful” and Julian Young, the cleared man’s lawyer, said legal action would almost certainly follow. He said: “Ten years ago someone in the Forensic Science Service, perhaps by accident, made an error of some sort, and as a result \ stayed in custody ten years longer. Whether the FSS have liability in respect of an error ten years ago is a matter for another day, when we have a chance to talk to Sean at some length.”

He can also seek compensation of up to £1 million from the scheme for victims of miscarriages of justice.

The service confirmed last night that it was conducting an internal inquiry into what contacts it had about Mr Hodgson’s case in 1998. To date, however, it has found nothing in its records about an approach to find or retest the exhibits.

The Times understands, however, that the approach began with Mr Hodgson’s then solicitor, Jacqueline Briggs, contacting Hampshire Constabulary. Police then telephoned the service to seek retrieval of evidence.

A note in the files states that the reply from a forensic scientist was that the exhibits had not been kept. A source said: “Unfortunately, that meant that the trail stopped there.”

When police contacted the service last year, however, the exhibits were retrieved, catalogued and thoroughly tested within eight months. Donna Rayner, of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said those tests proved that Mr Hodgson was not guilty.

“The prosecution case in 1982 was presented on the basis that the man who murdered the victim had also seriously sexually assaulted her,” she said.

“The new scientific evidence now proves that the man who sexually assaulted the victim was not Mr Hodgson. It is clear that the evidence now available would have affected the decision of the jury to convict, if indeed Mr Hodgson had been charged at all.”

The Criminal Cases Review Commission is urging the CPS to consider scores of other cases where fresh scientific tests might be appropriate.

A new inquiry has been opened to hunt for Miss de Simone’s murderer. Detective Chief Inspector Phil McTavish said police were searching for “the owner of the new DNA profile”.

He added: “The original investigation is now being revisited with the benefit of the DNA evidence and will utilise advances in DNA science.”

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