UK man guilty of murder in double jeopardy case

A man who was cleared of murdering a pizza delivery girl 17 years ago has become the first person in Britain to be convicted under a change to the double jeopardy rule.

Billy Dunlop, 43, twice stood trial in 1991 for killing Julie Hogg, 22, and hiding her body behind a bath panel in a house in Billingham, Teesside.

On both occasions the jury failed to reach a verdict, leaving the second trial judge no option but to direct that Dunlop should be formally acquitted of murder.

In 2000, while serving a jail term for attacking another woman, a girlfriend, Dunlop confessed to the killing.

Under the 800-year-old double jeopardy rule that prevents anyone from being tried twice for the same offence Dunlop could only be convicted of perjury for which he was sentenced to a further six years.

The injustice of the case led to a change in the law in 2005, which paved the way for a third attempt to convict Dunlop of the murder of Julie Hogg.

Yesterday at his trial at the Old Bailey Dunlop pleaded guilty.

For Julie Hogg's mother, Ann Ming, 64, it was the victorious culmination of a 17-year campaign to see her daughter's killer finally brought to justice.

Sitting in court yesterday she clenched her fist then wept when she heard Dunlop make his first public admission of guilt.

Afterwards she said: "We knew Dunlop was responsible and my husband Charlie and I were determined not to rest until he had been brought to justice.

"We made a promise to ourselves that Julie's killer would be punished and everyone we approached over the years has helped me in some way to reach that goal.

"It has been a long and difficult journey to see him standing in the dock at court today," she said.

"He has done everything he could to avoid justice, but his lying and scheming has eventually all been in vain. No one can know what it is like to lose a daughter in such horrific circumstances."

Julie Hogg's disappearance in November 1989 was initially treated as a missing person inquiry.

But Mrs Ming discovered her daughter's body concealed behind a bath panel in her home 80 days later.

She claimed that crucial evidence was lost because her daughter's body went undiscovered for so long.

In 1993 Cleveland Police paid Mrs Ming £10,000 in a settlement after she sued the force for negligenceDuring the perjury trial, the court heard Dunlop told police he had killed Ms Hogg after he called round at her house in the early hours following a party at a local rugby club.

He strangled her in a fit of rage after she made fun of injuries he had suffered in a fight earlier in the evening.

Dunlop wrapped her body in a blanket and tried to dispose of it in the loft, but could not manage the task.

Dunlop is the first person to be tried twice for the same offence after the double jeopardy rule was relaxed in April under the 2003 Criminal Justice Act.

In the run-up to reform, the Home Office's National Crime Faculty calculated there were 35 murder cases in which acquitted defendants could be re-investigated and new charges brought if the law was changed retrospectively.

These were thought to include Ronnie Knight, the ex-husband of EastEnders actress Barbara Windsor, and ex-Kray Twins associate Freddie Foreman, who have both written books confessing to involvement in murders.

But yesterday a spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said: "There are no other cases being considered by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP)."

- INDEPENDENT