Prosecutors have failed in a bid to bring a man to trial for a second time for the murder of a teenage student more than 20 years ago.

The Crown Office used Double Jeopardy legislation in its attempts to launch a retrial of Francis Auld over the death of Amanda Duffy.

Auld stood trial at the High Court in Glasgow in 1992 for the murder of the 19-year-old and was acquitted by a jury on a not proven verdict.

Ms Duffy's body was found on waste ground in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, in May that year.

The Crown Office applied to the High Court under double jeopardy legislation to set aside the acquittal and prosecute Mr Auld again over the death.

A hearing on the application took place before senior judges at the Appeal Court in Edinburgh last month.

Giving their ruling at a brief hearing at the court on Friday, judge Lady Dorrian said: "The application is refused."

The three judges ruled that so-called new evidence in relation to Ms Duffy's death was “inadmissible”.

The Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Act 2011 sets out conditions where an accused can be retried for a crime in which they were previously acquitted.

Any retrial requires high court judges to give prosecutors permission to proceed against the accused.

A Crown Office spokesman: "We note the court's decision. Given the application was based on alleged admissions, this does not prevent future applications being made and the case will remain under regular review by the cold case unit."