A MAN who has spent ten years in jail protesting his innocence over the murder of a teenager clubber is facing an anxious wait to see if his name will be cleared.

Steven Craven, now aged 31, was convicted in 1990 of stabbing 19-year-old shop assistant Penny Laing in the neck with a broken beer glass, at Newcastle's Studio nightclub, on Christmas Eve 1989.

The Appeal Court was urged yesterday to uphold his murder conviction by Crown counsel John Milford, who told three judges that new forensic evidence linked Craven to a shirt worn by Miss Laing's boyfriend, David Storey.

Miss Laing had slapped the face of a man who made an offensive remark to her on the dance floor, before she was struck in the neck by the glass.

Mr Storey fought with the man, and new evidence by forensic scientists links sweat and blood stains on Mr Storey's shirt with a DNA sample given by Craven, said Mr Milford.

The evidence contradicted Craven's statements to the police and at trial that he had never been involved in a scuffle with Miss Laing's boyfriend.

Mr Milford also disputed claims by Craven's lawyers that the failure of the police to hold an identity parade rendered the guilty verdict unsafe.

Patrick O'Connor, representing Craven, told the court earlier that Craven's conviction should be overturned because of the failure of the Crown to disclose forensic evidence that a fingerprint found on the glass did not belong to Craven.

The failure to hold an identity parade also cast doubt on the safety of his conviction.

The judges expect to give their ruling today.