A DOUBLE killer left vital evidence in the back of a hire car after blood leaked from a suitcase containing the body of a student, the Old Bailey heard.

Kyu Soo Kim, 32, is accused of murdering two women by suffocating them.

It is claimed he hid one body in a cupboard and then stuffed the other in a suitcase which he dumped at a roadside in North Yorkshire.

Hotelier Kim denies murdering tenants Hyun-Han Jin, 21, and In Hea Song, 22.

Miss Jin was murdered in October 2001, days after arriving at Kim's guesthouse in Holborn, Central London, it is alleged.

She was forced into a large suitcase which was then dumped 212 miles away in a country lane in Askham Richard, near York.

Forensic scientist Sarah Gray said traces of Miss Jin's blood were found in the boot of a blue Peugeot Kim allegedly hired to transport the body.

She said: "In relation to the position of the stains and nature of them, the findings are more likely to be blood leaking out of the suitcase rather than direct contact of Miss Jin to the boot panel."

The court heard that the victim's blood was also recovered from the floor of a bedroom in Eagle Street, Holborn, where she was allegedly killed.

The scientist said: "I concluded that presence of spots of blood on the carpet and other places in the bedroom which yielded a DNA profile matching Miss Jin gives strong support that she had been bleeding freely whilst on the floor of that room."

Jurors heard Kim's blood was also found on jeans worn by Miss Jin.

Mrs Gray said: "This could well have been deposited on different occasions.

"The appearance of blood in the inside back suggests it could have been either from direct contact or by contact with a wide bloodstained surface such as a hand."

The court has heard the second victim, Surrey University student Miss Song, disappeared a month after Miss Jin. She was found on March 15 last year in a sealed cupboard at another guesthouse in Augusta Street, Poplar, East London.

Kim allegedly fled to Canada after the killings, paying for the flight with his second victim's cash.

He was arrested when he returned to Britain on January 7, last year.

It is claimed he forced the victims, who were both found naked, to tell him their PIN numbers before withdrawing thousands from their accounts.

Kim, of Eagle Street, Holborn, denies two charges of murder.

The trial continues.

Updated: 10:25 Wednesday, March 12, 2003