Bridgewater murder probe 'must be reopened' - MP

Speaking at Home Office Questions Ian Austin asked Theresa May to urge the Crown Prosecution Service and the police to review the case in light of new evidence revealed by a television documentary.

The Dudley North MP's intervention follows the broadcast of the programme on Channel Four, which revealed new evidence about the murder of the 13-year-old Wordsley paperboy.

Policing Minister Mike Penning said that the Government would be looking at new evidence revealed in the documentary and agreed to meet with Mr Austin to discuss the issue.

Carl Bridgewater was shot a point-blank range at Yew Tree Farm in Prestwood, near Stourbridge in 1978 while delivering newspapers.

Four men were found guilty of the murder but in 1997 had their convictions overturned. But new revelations into the murder inquiry claim to destroy the 'cast-iron' alibi of former chief suspect Bert Spencer.

Speaking at Home Office Questions, Mr Austin said: "Nobody who grew up in Dudley will forget the shocking murder of 13-year-old paperboy Carl Bridgewater.

"Will the Home Secretary ask the police and the CPS to review this new evidence to see whether this case can finally be solved and whoever was responsible can be brought to justice?"

Mr Penning said in response: "No one will forget that terrible case, and my thoughts are still with the parents no matter how long it is since then.

"It is not the role of a PCC to instruct the police how to investigate, but we will look at it and look at the ongoing evidence, and perhaps we could meet and discuss this further."

Ambulance driver Spencer had links both to the crime scene and to the Bridgewater family. He later served time for a murder that bore striking similarities, but has always denied killing Carl Bridgewater.

In the documentary he was quizzed by leading criminologist Professor David Wilson.

The TV documentary re-examines the evidence surrounding both the murder Spencer was convicted for and the one he was never charged with.

A former hospital secretary, who provided Spencer with what he called a 'cast-iron' alibi, admitted she could not prove where he was for the entire day on which Carl was killed.

His first wife Janet Spencer also spoke on the record for the first time in almost 40 years. She made potentially incriminating claims and called on the police to reopen the murder investigation.