ELAINE Doyle’s murderer could be free before the summer after appeal judges finally set a date for the hearing that could see his guilty verdict overturned.

The Telegraph can reveal that John Docherty’s legal team will go before appeal judges in Edinburgh in April in a bid to quash the former soldier’s conviction.

It means he could potentially be released less than two years after he was convicted of the teenager’s brutal murder.

Docherty was found guilty in June 2014 and sentenced to a minimum of 21 years behind bars after a jury found him guilty of strangling 16-year-old Elaine in a lane off Ardgowan Street in June 1986.

Since his sentencing, the 50-year-old has continued to refuse to accept he played any part in the murder — with QC Donald Findlay saying his client remained ‘adamant’ of his innocence.

Docherty’s defence team, led by Greenock-based Westcourts Litigation and lawyer Derek Buchanan, will concentrate the appeal on the grounds that no reasonable jury should have convicted Docherty on the evidence presented at his trial.

The hearing had been scheduled to take place at the beginning of the year, but was moved due to complexities surrounding the case.

Mr Findlay is also currently involved in a long-running High Court case elsewhere, but this is expected to be complete by April, freeing him to spearhead Docherty’s appeal. 

He will now present a full case to a panel of three senior appeal judges in Edinburgh on April 11 at a hearing expected to last no longer than a week.

Should the judges decide that the jury’s decision at the original trial was flawed, they could then direct that Docherty be acquitted of Elaine’s murder.

Another option open to them would be to order a full retrial at the High Court.

The former soldier’s defence team have appealed against both the murder conviction itself and the length of the 21-year minimum sentence handed down from the bench.

This challenge however will only become relevant if the appeal against conviction failed.

Docherty was arrested by police in 2012 following a cold case review and a crucial DNA evidence breakthrough.

He denied the murder and submitted a list of 41 people which he said could contain the killer.

But crucial forensic evidence showed that the chances of DNA found on Elaine’s body not being his were a billion to one — leading a jury to find him guilty.