A table leg and knife thought to have been used to murder Angelika Kluk bore no DNA traces of the odd job man accused of battering and stabbing her, a trial has heard.

The blood-stained table leg was found propped against an outside wall of St Patrick's Church in Anderston, Glasgow, the High Court in Edinburgh was told.

A bloody knife was found in a bag dumped on top of Polish student Angelika's body, under the floor of the church.

Forensic scientist Carol Weston, 33, told the trial that the blood matched Angelika's DNA.

She faced questions from Donald Findlay QC, who is defending handyman Peter Tobin, 60.

The lawyer described the knife and table leg as "possible if not probable murder weapons" and Mrs Weston agreed.

"Where on the knife was Mr Tobin's DNA found?" demanded Mr Findlay.

Mrs Weston told him: "I don't believe we found Mr Tobin's DNA on the knife."

Asked about the table leg she replied: "Again, we only found Angelika Kluk's DNA on the table leg."

Mrs Weston added: "On the knife handle there was a mixture but it was unidentifiable."

Mr Findlay continued: "But as a matter of fact Mr Tobin's DNA was not found on either murder weapon."

"No" agreed Mrs Weston.

She also confirmed that no traces of Mr Tobin's DNA were found on plastic sheeting thought to have been used to funnel the lifeless corpse through the tiny hatch near the priest's confessional in the church.

Fellow forensic scientist Martin Fairley, 45, who has 24 years experience, told the court of his part in examining the gag wound tightly round Angelika's head. It was heavily blood-stained and clumps of the student's hair were stuck to the tape, he said.

The gag, fashioned from yellow insulating tape, was later returned to the lab after experts found a possible print.

Mr Fairley said: "Not being a fingerprint expert I swabbed the area in the vicinity of the fingerprint."

The swab revealed DNA which matched Mr Tobin, he said. There was no scientific test to show whether the DNA came from print or tape.

Advocate depute Dorothy Bain, prosecuting, asked: "Is it a reasonable conclusion to make that he (Tobin) touched the tape.

"I think it is a reasonable conclusion," Mr Fairley replied.

On Tuesday Mrs Weston was criticised for not swabbing the tape background as well as the fingerprint and accused of breaching lab protocols.

Now she defended her conclusion - claiming it would not have made any difference.

"Why did you say you had made a mistake?" asked Ms Bain.

"I was taken aback yesterday because I didn't recognise the procedure that was being referred to," she said.

Mr Tobin denies murder, attempting to defeat the ends of justice, attempting to pervert the course of justice and breach of the peace.

He also denies rape, claiming he had sex with Angelika with her consent.

Angelika, 23, had been staying at the chapel house attached to St Patrick's Church in Anderston, Glasgow, and working as a cleaner to help finance her language studies in Gdansk.

Mr Tobin was helping out there as an odd job man.

He is accused of attacking Angelika between September 24 and September 29 in St Patrick's Church, or elsewhere, gagging her with cloth and tape, binding her hands with cable ties, raping her, smashing her skull with a piece of wood or something similar, stabbing her 16 times in the chest and inflicting other knife injuries.

It is alleged that he then hid the body under the floor of the church.

A further charge alleges that he told Glasgow police his name was Patrick McLaughlin, gave a false date of birth and address, and that he travelled to London and gave staff at the National Neurology and Neurosurgery Hospital in Queen's Square, London, another false name.

Mr Tobin also denies a breach of the peace between July and September last year by threatening Russian student Rebecca Dordi at St Patrick's Church.

The trial continues.