Two men jailed for life for the murder of the Cooper twins yesterday appealed their convictions at the Court of Appeal.

Barristers for Kenneth Burgess and Dennis Robinson presented what they claimed was fresh evidence which cast doubt on the credibility of a key witness in the murder trial.

Burgess and Robinson were jailed in February last year for the revenge attack in which the 20-year-old twins were beaten then bludgeoned to death with a metal baseball bat. Jahmal was struck in the head, arms and legs with the weapon, while Jahmil was punched in the face and then struck in the legs.

As Burgess carried out the attacks it is alleged that Robinson, a former national team football player, guarded the door to prevent escape. The pair then allegedly dumped the bodies 80 feet down Abbot's Cliff where their skeletal remains were discovered one month later by Police.

Burgess is said to have attacked the twins in revenge for them allegedly robbing his father. The ferocity of the beating on March 13, 2005, ended their lives within minutes and sent blood spraying across the walls of Burgess' apartment in Crown Hill Lane, Devonshire.

Yesterday three Appeal Court judges refused a review of Burgess's case.

Barrister Courtenay Griffiths QC, for Burgess, claimed the evidence of witness Devario Whitter during the four-week trial was unreliable because he had allegedly made an agreement with Police to fabricate evidence in order to assist his cousin Steven Evans.

The court heard that when Police were looking to interview Whitter as a witness to the murder, acting on information from another witness, Gladwin Cann, they turned up at Evans' address in Court Street to discover heroin and cocaine plus $18,000 in cash. Evans wanted an agreement with Police that if he brought Whitter to them they would be more lenient on him. The Crown however, proceeded with his prosecution and he was jailed for six years.

Mr. Griffiths claimed that Whitter then made an agreement with Police to gave false evidence in the trial, to assist his cousin.

Then in July this year, Whitter himself received a shorter sentence for a burglary conviction due to his role as a prosecution witness in the murder trial. He pleaded guilty to stealing more than $100,000 from a house in Pembroke in March 2005, and Senior Crown counsel Carrington Mahoney said he should be given credit for his role in the murder trial. Whitter, 24, had said he was with Burgess and Robinson and the twins when the attack took place.

Judge Norma Wade-Miller subsequently sentenced him to 18 months instead of three to five years, saying that without his testimony "the authorities would not have secured a conviction in one of the most horrid murders Bermuda has ever seen".

Yesterday, Mr. Griffiths said he wanted the Appeal Court judges to accept submissions of new affidavits by Whitter and Evans which presented fresh evidence that Whitter had fabricated evidence.

He also claimed that that DNA evidence which revealed specks of Jahmal's blood in Burgess's watch strap was due to "an earlier confrontation" between the two, and that Burgess was not present at the scene of the murder.

Mr. Griffiths said Whitter had "powerful motives" to fabricate evidence against Burgess, in order to assist his cousin.

"Whitter's motivation at least at the outset might not have been his own self-interest as suggested by me at the time (during the trial) but assisting his close relative," he said.

"And Whitter did in fact receive a reward in the form of a shorter sentence for giving evidence."

Mr. Griffiths said this threw doubt on the "credibility" of Whitter's evidence. "The first application has to be for the court to receive that fresh evidence, thereafter we can proceed to the appeal," he said.

If the court accepted there was new evidence, then the judges had to ask "can the conviction still stand or should we order a retrial?"

But commenting on his submissions, Appeal Court President Edward Zacca said: "I can't see any jury accepting that without further evidence of a deal between Whitter and the Police."

Justice Gerald Nazareth added: "The Police certainly don't support that argument. Where is the evidence that Whitter made a false statement?"

Senior Crown Counsel Paula Tyndale dismissed Mr. Griffith's claims as "not credible" due to the weight of forensic evidence supporting Whitter's statements.

"There is an abundance of evidence at the trial and when one looks again at this evidence and the affidavit it clearly says the evidence now before you is not credible," she told the court.

Ms Tyndale said there was "abundant evidence he (Whitter) was present" at the murder scene, adding: "He demonstrated the position of one of the deceased when he was being beaten by a baseball bat, a demonstration used by a pathologist to say that was consistent with the injuries seen to both arms and of the weapon."

She added: "The jury would still have found as they did and convicted Burgess."

Mr. Justice Zacca concluded: "The decision of this court is that the application is refused."

Barrister John Perry, QC, appealed Robinson's conviction, arguing that following questions by Mr. Griffiths on the credibility of Whitter, the only other witness Gladwin Cann was stood outside the Crown Hill Lane apartment and therefore would not have seen whether Robinson had assisted Burgess in a "clearing exercise" of the flat before the assault took place. Mr. Perry said that he would also not have seen whether Robinson had helped Burgess in any way, such as guarding the door.

The appeal continues.