Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PCSO murder arrest after daughter ‘spots witness’
She urged woman to tell all
THE man held in connection with the murder of PCSO Julia James was found after her daughter urged a potential witness to speak up.
His arrest on Friday came hours after detectives issued a photo appeal of a man said to have “crucial information” .
It showed a man carrying a blue sports holdall in an area near the path where the mumof-two’s body was found.
PCSO Julia, 53, was bludgeoned to death while walking her dog, Toby, on April 27.
Her daughter Bethan Coles, 31, urged a potential witness to contact the police, leading to the apparent breakthrough.
Responding to the appeal on Facebook, a woman said her daughter recognised the man and had seen him with the bag.
Ms Coles, a police officer, spotted the post among dozens of comments and pleaded with her to contact the police.
She wrote: “Please go to the police if you have any information. We would be so grateful.”
The woman later posted to say she had contacted police, the Sunday Times reported.
Officers arrested the British national in the Canterbury area at 9.30pm on Friday and began searching a home in Aylesham, Kent, the following morning.
Search teams in white overalls continued scouring the two-storey new-build, which is just over a mile from Julia’s home in Snowdown, yesterday.
They were seen pulling up paving stones and emptying a skip in the driveway as officers were granted until this evening to question the man, in his 20s.