Two fresh DNA tests ordered by the Tokyo High Court, in a reversal of an earlier finding, showed that a sample taken from an inmate serving life for the 1990 murder of a 4-year-old girl in Tochigi Prefecture did not match body fluid found on the victim's clothing, investigative sources have said.

The new finding came to light Monday after the DNA tests were conducted by scientists recruited on behalf of both Toshikazu Sugaya, 62, who was convicted in 2000 of killing the girl, and prosecutors.

The high court ordered the latest DNA tests in December, acting on an appeal Sugaya filed immediately after his request for retrial was rejected by a district court in Tochigi Prefecture in February 2008.