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Doubts over the reliability of expert evidence at trial have led to a decision by the Criminal Cases Review Commission to ask the Court of Appeal to look again at the conviction of a man, known as E, on sex charges.

E, who has not been named for legal reasons, was convicted of six counts of rape, two of indecency and two of gross indecency in 2003. He was sentenced to six years imprisonment, appealed in 2004 but the appeal was dismissed and applied to the Commission in 2006.

A leading UK fire expert has uncovered serious errors in an investigation that led to the execution of a man convicted of causing the deaths of three children in a house fire in America.

The findings came in an independent expert's report to the Texas Forensic Science Commission, the state's equivalent of the UK Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Government moves to cut the cost of expert evidence could lead to 'second class justice', according to the Society of Expert Witnesses.

Delegates at the Society's Autumn Conference in Cheshire heard detailed proposals from the Legal Services Commission to cap expert witness rates in publicly-funded criminal and family court cases, irrespective of a specialist's seniority or field of knowledge or the complexity of the work involved.

SEW's Vice Chairman Frazer Imrie warned the audience of experts and speakers from the legal and forensic world: "It is clear that the intention is not to ensure justice for all but to constrain costs."