Man admits murder in first UK double jeopardy case

Ann Ming the mother of Julie Hogg at court today. Below, Billy Dunlop in 1991.
13 April 2012

Fifteen years after he was cleared of murder, the first person in Britain to face a retrial under new double jeopardy rules admitted today that he killed his victim.

Billy Dunlop, 43, pleaded guilty to murdering pizza delivery girl Julie Hogg, 22, in Billingham, Teesside, when he appeared at the Old Bailey today.

See also:

• Timeline leading up to double jeopardy conviction

Dunlop stood trial twice in 1991 for her murder, but each time a jury failed to reach a verdict. He was formally acquitted under the convention that the prosecution do not ask for a third trial in such circumstances.

But in April last year the double jeopardy rule - which prevented a defendant who had been acquitted from being tried again for the same offence - was changed under the 2003 Criminal Justice Act.

The following November the Director of Public Prosecutions announced the legal process to re-try Dunlop for murder had begun. The case was sent to the Court of Appeal, where his acquittal was quashed.

Dunlop's case was due to be the first to be sent for trial by a jury again under the change to the double jeopardy law.

Ms Hogg's disappearance in November 1989 was initially treated as a missing person inquiry. But her mother Ann Ming discovered Ms Hogg's body concealed behind a bath panel in her daughter's home 80 days later.

Mrs Ming has campaigned for 14 years for the double jeopardy rule to be revoked, and the Law Commission reviewed it in 2001.

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