Nephew says reopen Hilda Murrell case

The nephew of Hilda Murrell, the Shrewsbury rose grower whose murder in 1984 sparked a host of conspiracy theories and claims of an Establishment cover-up, has called for a reopening of the case because of 'explosive new evidence'.

Rob Green says that the new information proves that at least one other man was involved in the crime and this information would probably lead to the acquittal of Andrew George.

George is serving a life sentence after being convicted of Miss Murrell's abduction and murder following a five-week trial in 2005.

In what became one of Britain's most sensational crimes in modern times, the 78-year-old woman was abducted from her Shrewsbury home and later found dead in a copse in the shadow of Haughmond Hill.

She had been repeatedly stabbed, although a post mortem concluded she died of hypothermia.

While police favoured a 'burglary gone wrong' theory, there were allegations that it was a state murder connected to Hilda's work to expose risks at the planned Sizewell nuclear reactor, and also to the sinking of Argentine cruiser General Belgrano in the Falklands War, when Mr Green was working in Navy intelligence.

George, a 16-year-old Shrewsbury tearaway at the time of the killing, was convicted largely on the basis of DNA evidence.

Mr Green outlines his case for reopening the affair in a book A Thorn In Their Side. He said: "My primary and immediate motive is to expose explosive new evidence which proves at least one other man was involved in Hilda's murder. This would probably acquit Andrew George.

"I believe this book prov-ides enough evidence, known to both prosecution and def-ence but not put to the jury or Appeal Court judges in 2006, to reopen the coroner's inquest into Hilda's death."