Killer found guilty in double jeopardy trial
An electriciAn was convicted yesterday of the murder of a 77-year- old woman at a ‘double jeopardy’ trial.
Fresh DnA evidence linked Matthew Hamlen, 37, to the killing of Georgina edmonds four years after he was cleared of the crime.
His retrial heard he tortured his victim repeatedly to obtain her bank card Pin number.
last night her son Harry said the case resembled the plot of a detective novel.
‘the investigation has lasted eight long years and, sadly, was not a tale written to entertain people but the true story of a wicked and vicious crime,’ he said.
‘it has contained almost as many twists and turns as an Agatha christie thriller. Hamlen stabbed my mother 37 times and then beat her to death with a marble rolling pin.’
Mr edmonds, 60, found his mother lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen of her riverside cottage in Brambridge, Hampshire, in January 2008. the second trial was made possible when ‘sticky tapings’ taken from the victim’s clothing produced a DnA sample which was 26 million times more likely to come from Hamlen than from anyone else.
Michael Bowes Qc, for the prosecution, told the jury at Winchester crown court that DnA on the rolling pin further pointed to his guilt. And mobile phone analysis placed Hamlen close to the crime scene at the time, the court heard.
the jury took four hours to reach a guilty verdict to murder following a six-week trial.
Mr Justice Saunders thanked them, saying: ‘it’s been a distressing, extremely difficult case for anyone to do.’
Hamlen, from eastleigh in Hants, will be sentenced today.
Double jeopardy trials – where a defendant has already been tried for the same offence – have been allowed in england and Wales since 2005. Yesterday’s conviction was the seventh since the law change.
Simon Hayes, who is police and crime commissioner for Hampshire, said: ‘this is the first double jeopardy trial in Hampshire where the same person was tried a second time following new, compelling evidence.
‘Achieving a guilty verdict four years after Hamlen was first acquitted finally gives Georgina’s family the chance of closure, as much as one can gain closure after such a horrific crime.’
Mr edmonds, who was supported by his 58-year-old sister and son Harry, 21, said the original acquittal had been a considerable shock but he always remained ‘confident that justice would be done’.
He added: ‘the death penalty is no longer a sentencing option for judges in this country and in my view it is a matter of great regret that we can no longer execute the loathsome individuals who commit crimes of this magnitude.’