Jailed for killing girl 41 years on
A FORMER soldier who raped and killed a girl has been jailed for 12 years, four decades after an innocent man went to prison for the crime.
Stephen Hough, 58, hid his guilt while Noel Jones was jailed for killing Janet Commins, 15, in Flint, North Wales, in 1976.
But a billion-to-one match of Hough’s DNA with samples found at the crime scene was uncovered after samples were taken by police last year.
Hough denied knowing Janet but was convicted last week by a jury at Mold Crown Court of rape and manslaughter following a three-week trial. Hough, from Flint, was cleared of the alternative charge of murder.
North Wales Police are being investigated by watchdogs over the case. Mr Jones – then an illiterate gipsy teenager – told the trial he was coerced into making a false confession.