Dead woman's print 'found in car'

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Police investigating the death of a woman who fell from a moving car discovered her fingerprint inside the vehicle a year later, a court heard.

Stephanie Hammill's fingerprint was discovered inside Ioannis Revenikiotis' black Mercedes, a jury at Leeds Crown Court heard.

The car was found in a Greek scrapyard a year after the 20-year-old's death.

Mr Revenikiotis, 28, of Dewsbury, denies the abduction and manslaughter of Miss Hammill in Wakefield in 2003.

The jury heard the car was brought back from Greece to the UK in a sealed container, where police experts found the fingerprint.

Seat fibres

Robert Smith QC, prosecuting, said the fingerprint discovery was conclusive evidence "that it was the accused who abducted Stephanie Hammill and within minutes thereafter caused her death".

Mr Smith said seat fibres from the Mercedes were also discovered on Miss Hammill's clothing.

The court heard previously that Miss Hammill either jumped or fell from Mr Revenikiotis' car because she feared she was about to be sexually assaulted.

She mistakenly believed Revenikiotis was a taxi driver, the jury was told.

Moments later she was found lying dead in Batley Road, Wakefield, after being struck by another car.

Business trip

The jury heard Mr Revenikiotis left for a business trip to Korea on the day of Miss Hammill's death.

When he returned to the UK he borrowed some money from colleagues, and drove himself and his parents in his black Mercedes across Europe and back to Greece, the court heard.

When he was traced in Greece he told detectives sent out to interview him that he "knew absolutely nothing about the incident".

Mr Revenikiotis also denies charges of abduction and indecent assault in connection with an attack on a 23-year-old pregnant woman he picked up outside a bus station late at night in Dewsbury, nine months before Miss Hammill's death.

The trial continues.