Doug Schneider

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Blood evidence in the Steven Avery case was not properly protected by police, opening the door for potential tampering, according to a claim Monday on a British website.

It's one of a number of recent stories from Great Britain about the Teresa Halbach murder and the Avery prosecution. The case forms the basis for the wildly popular Netflix documentary, "Making a Murderer."

A Sussex, U.K., police detective tells Mirror.co.uk that "that Manitowoc County law enforcement may not have done everything in their power to properly protect the evidence, leaving some important unanswered questions."

Crime Scene Investigator Chris Gee says the absence of an "exhibit label" on a vial of blood seen in the documentary calls into question the integrity of the sample. He also says a close examination of the vial indicates that it might have been opened — raising the possibility of tampering.

"That looked suspicious," he said.

The documentary presents the discovery of the blood vial in a case file in the Manitowoc County Clerk's office as a "gotcha" moment in which giddy defense attorney Jerry Buting phones co-counsel Dean Strang to share the news that a seal on the evidence container is broken.

Elsewhere in the British isles, the U.K. Independent says "Making a Murderer" creators Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi told an Irish audience wrongful convictions are on the rise.

The story has a couple quotes attributed jointly to the filmmakers — Example: “'It’s an experience that changed us and an experience that we tried to offer to our viewers and that’s another reason why we fought so hard to make this a series,' they said" — in what becomes a gushy essay by Anne Driscoll, project manager of the Irish Innocence Project at Griffith College.

To wit:

"Sometimes life is serendipitous. And also amazing. Sharing a stage and a public conversation with the megahit 'Making a Murderer' creators Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos is akin to having a singsong with Glen Hansard.

"And the fact that this Irish Innocence Project at Griffith College event happened after a Hail Mary email to the pair on the eve of their arrival in Dublin for a two-day visit and materialised in a Q&A before 100 people 36 hours later is equivalent to a Christmas miracle. But it shows how truly gracious and grounded these two people are."

(Hansard is "an Irish songwriter, actor, vocalist and guitarist for Irish group The Frames, and one half of folk rock duo The Swell Season," according to Wikipedia.)

OK, then.

Also in Ireland, Buting spoke at the European Young Bar Association spring conference, according to Independent.ie.

The website includes a five-minute video clip of Buting.

Back to the Independent, which notices this similarity between "Making a Murderer" and the latest TV piece on the American "crime of the century," the O.J. Simpson trial.

"The People v OJ: American Crime Story'" and "MaM" both are "based on real-life events."

Glad we could clear that up.

Not to be outdone by Buting and Strang, who recently began a North American speaking tour, former prosecutor Ken Kratz has scheduled a public appearance of his own — and he's bringing in some national level "star" power in the form of Fox News' Judge Jeanine Pirro.

Kratz and Pirro will appear May 19 in Rockford, Ill., where Bustle.com says Kratz plans to present "never-before-seen evidence omitted from the documentary." Because, apparently, that's how it's done these days. Pirro, like Kratz, has no doubt that Avery murdered Halbach, the photographer who disappeared after visiting Avery's Manitowoc county salvage yard to photograph a car in 2005.

Tickets for the Kratz and Pirro appearance are $47.50 and $27.50. And if this map is any indication, plenty of good seats — we're talking fifth row, center — are still available.

Also worth noting: The site labels Kratz, now in private practice Up North, "every Netflix subscriber's least-favorite district attorney."

dschneid@greenbaypressgazette.com and follow him on Twitter @PGDougSchneider