New evidence has emerged that detectives may have falsified reports in one of the most controversial murder cases in the Netherlands in recent years, the Volkskrant said on Wednesday.

The Deventer murder case was reopened several years ago after detectives discovered new evidence indicating that the man convicted of the crime may have been innocent.

Jacqueline Wittenberg was murdered in Deventer in 1999 and her former financial advisor Ernst Louwes was found guilty of her murder after a lengthy legal battle and was given a 12-year sentence.

Louwes, released from jail in 2009, has always maintained his innocence and wants his name cleared.

Now a CD-rom has surfaced with over 150 photographs and reports of the murder, which proves fingerprints were wiped at the scene and passages were removed from testimonies, the paper says.

In addition, the CD-rom contains a new photograph of the victim complete with blood spots which are damaging to the case for the defence, the paper said.

Louwes’ lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops told the Volkskrant the new findings prove his client is innocent.

‘I would not want to use the word “deliberately” but these items show that irregularities in the police investigation are not incidental, but structural,’ he said.