Vanezis wrote in his notes at the post mortem that some of the bloodstains on Sheila's nightdress were made by her right hand. In court he said there was no blood on her hand. When questioned by CAL, he said "I'm not whether I said that after the blood had been washed from her hands". [page 194]
It would be interesting to know at what point this hand washing occured.
It is apparent that the appeal court did not consider that Sheila’s hand had been washed as you speculate. Rather the reverse. They concurred that had Vanezis brought the evidence available in his notes to the original trial it would have served to reinforce Bamber’s guilt.
The point is not the red herring you have introduced it is the fact that Vanezis was privy to information he did not present to the trial which was as accurate as that which he did.
Just because evidence was not presented at the trial does not detract from its validity and no witness can be considered infallible, sometimes things get missed as I think happened on this occasion I think a bloody handprint on a murdered victim's body is a big deal.
Anyway ... for the purposes of a discussion forum just because evidence was not led at trial does not invalidate it as a discussion tool. This is not a trial and I think it is appropriate to discuss all information with a valid source which in this instance happens to be that part of Vanezis's notes which he chose not to tell the court about.
517The most clear cut of which was that Mr Ismail had referred to a bloodstain on the upper right thigh of Sheila Caffell's nightdress that was clearly caused by a bloody hand print. He said that he understood that Dr Vanezis, the pathologist, had given evidence that there was no blood on the palm side of Sheila Caffell's hands. Therefore, he concluded, this staining must have been deposited by another individual. However, whilst Mr Ismail rightly recorded the evidence of Dr Vanezis, Mr Turner was able to point to a note made by Dr Vanezis at the time of the post-mortem examination that read:
"bloodstained palm prints on nightdress matches bloodstains appeared to have transferred from R hand. "
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2002/2912.html