London:: A man cleared of murdering a pizza delivery girl in 1989 is set to become the first person in Britain to be tried twice for the same crime, the UK's Director of Public
Prosecutions said.
Ken Macdonald said on Wednesday he had given consent for the case involving Billy Dunlop to be referred to the Court of Appeal under the new double jeopardy law because there was "new and compelling evidence."
"Having looked at the submissions from the Chief Crown Prosecutor for Cleveland, I am satisfied the conditions are met and the CPS should apply to the Court of Appeal for William Dunlop to be re-tried for the murder of Julie Hogg," Macdonald said in a statement.
"It is now for the Court of Appeal to decide whether or not William Dunlop should be tried again for the murder."
Hogg disappeared from her home in November 1989 and her body was found by her mother hidden behind a bath panel at her daughter's house in Billingham, northeast England, 80 days after she went missing.
Dunlop faced two trials over the murder of Hogg but each time the
jury failed to reach a verdict and he was formally acquitted in 1991.
In 2000, he was jailed for six years after pleading guilty to two charge of perjury arising out of evidence he gave at the murder trials.
The case becomes the first to be affected since the reform of the
double jeopardy rule -- which used to stipulate that a person once acquitted could not be tried twice for the same offence -- came into force earlier this year.
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