One of the reasons why the CPS decided not to prosecute in 2015/16 might have been to avoid a fiasco like that of Geoffrey Leeming’s unsolved murder 20 years earlier in Haxby, north York.
A 63-year old ex-military man was brutally murdered one October evening in 1996, whilst he was pottering in the garage and his wife was watching Coronation Street in the house. Wife, daughter, son and a business associate were all charged with murder and went to trial but the case was thrown out of court due to lack of hard evidence (despite having a body, crime scene and murder weapon - a knife). However, there was plenty of evidence of fraud, for which the family faced charges afterwards.
Anyway, my point is that it was a good job nobody went to trial for CL’s murder a few years ago, if evidence was only circumstantial.
All sorts of other doggy dealings would have come to the surface, but not enough to get justice for CL’s family IMO. Geoffrey Leeming’s brother is still waiting for the case to be reopened and it’s interesting that NYP won’t give him access to any of the evidence that was gathered at the time
Unsolved murder: Victim's brother makes new appeal, 20 years on