Police hope DNA will finally snare killer of grandmother, 59

POLICE are hoping DNA from the scene where a grandmother was found brutally assaulted 15 years ago will help finally to bring her killer to justice.

Winnie Deighton, a well-known and popular 59-year-old grandmother, was found unconscious near the junction of Thornton Road and Bessingby Road, Bridlington, in June 1997.

She had been brutally attacked and sexually assaulted.

Mrs Deighton, of Remembrance Court, Bridlington, died in hospital 11 days afterwards, having never regained consciousness.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Humberside Police’s Major Incident Team are focusing their inquiries around Bridlington’s West Hill estate.

Det Chief Insp Matt Hutchinson said advances in DNA technology had sparked hopes that material from the original crime scene could help them catch her killer.

He said: “The DNA will help us to eliminate people from our enquiries. It will be a long process.

“We owe it to her and her family to find out who did this to her. Her killer has evaded justice for 15 years.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Hutchinson said many people on West Hill would remember the case, and appealed for anyone with information to come forward.

Two years after her murder a man, then aged 36, stood trial for her murder. However a judge ruled that the evidence was unsafe.

The defendant was alleged to have confessed to the killing to four inmates while on remand for another matter in the hospital wing at Hull prison.

But the Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Michael Walker, directed the jury at Sheffield Crown Court to record a not guilty verdict, saying the evidence of the prisoners – “a disreputable quartet who contradicted themselves and each other” – was unreliable.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mrs Deighton was found unconscious at about 6am on Thursday, June 10.

During the night of the attack she had been seen, just before midnight, near the junction of Thornton Road and Bessingby Road.

She was seen again at about 12.20am, again on Thornton Road.

It was not unusual for Mrs Deighton to visit people late at night to make them a drink, often taking her own tea bags with her. When she was found she had a quantity of tea bags in her pocket.

Speaking after the collapse of the court case Mrs Deighton’s daughter said: “I still hope someone might remember something which gives the police another lead to go on.”