Dad was charged and then cleared
Fred Stacey, who always denied killing his son Scott Pritchard, was cleared after the Crown Prosecution Service decided there was no realistic prospect of a conviction and offered no evidence against him.
Mr Stacey, then 52, was cleared at a pre-trial hearing at Newcastle Crown Court in October 2005, having previously been charged with murder.
At the time, a CPS spokesman said: “Every case must meet the evidential test set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors and review of the evidence is a continuing process throughout the life of a case.
“We have reviewed the evidence in this case very carefully and have concluded that it does not meet the evidential test.
“The reasons for our decision have been fully discussed with Northumbria Police and we have written to Scott’s family to offer a meeting so that we can explain it to them.”
After he was cleared, his lawyer Nigel Barnes, from Ben Hoare Bell solicitors, said Mr Stacey had been devastated by Scott’s death and was confident he would have been found not guilty had the case come to trial.
Mr Barnes added: “He is grateful to the CPS and the police for the fair and considered decision they have now made and hopes they will reopen the case with a view to identifying the real culprit.”
In January 2005, Scott’s stepsister Deborah Stacey, then 33, made an emotional appeal on the first annivesary of his death for people to help bring his killer to justice.
She said at the time: “None of us are ever going to be able to rest until the person who did this is finally caught.”