We shared Milly’s parents’ anguish - by family of murdered Jenny Nicholl

Six years ago tomorrow, Jenny Nicholl left her home in Richmond, and was never seen again. Her body has not been found.

Unemployed father-of-two David Hodgson went on trial at Teesside Crown Court in 2008 and claimed Ms Nicholl ran away from home to escape her abusive father.

But the jury saw through his lies and, sentencing him to life, Mr Justice Openshaw said the allegation was made “without the slightest shred of supporting evidence”.

During the five-week trial, details of Ms Nicholl’s private life were revealed, with references to sex, drugs and drinking.

Hodgson’s defence team questioned her parents about aspects of family life.

They have described the experience as character assassination, which left some of them in tears.

Ms Nicholl’s parents Brian and Ann spoke about their ordeal in support of Milly Dowler’s family, who won much public sympathy after Levi Bellfield was convicted of killing their daughter last week.

The Dowlers’ private life was similarly laid bare by Bellfield’s defence team, leading to calls for a change in the justice system to protect victims’ families.

The Dowlers stated they had paid too high a price for the conviction.

The Nicholls told the Northern Echo newspaper: “This is a damning and powerful statement. In our case, we often felt the same.”

They persevered to bring justice for their daughter, but there were many aspects of the legal system which left them calling for change.

“You see your family being questioned one by one about their lifestyle, every witness undergoing a character assassination, some of them reduced to tears afterwards and all the while the defendant sits there and continues to build on the fabrication,” they told the newspaper.

The family called for more support to be given to witnesses and they felt the media should be clearer in court reporting, separating fact from allegation.

They also believed reporting should be banned in certain cases to protect the privacy of victims, families and witnesses.

The Nicholls are now joining the campaign to change the system.

Ms Nicholl had been having an affair with married Hodgson and the prosecution claimed he killed her after becoming angry about her burgeoning friendship with his brother.

Her mother wept in court as she recalled finding some of Ms Nicholl’s personal items hidden in Sandbeck Plantation on the outskirts of Richmond while she helped a police search.

Large areas of the North Yorkshire countryside have been searched by teams looking for her.

Text messages, suspected of being sent by Hodgson to cover his tracks, were sent from her phone to her family in the weeks after she vanished. Experts gave evidence to say the messages were sent from Cumbria and Jedburgh, in Scotland.

Asked about the treatment of Milly’s family in court, Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I’m extremely sorry that the people were put through this ordeal, but you can’t stop people making a nasty defence, sometimes making unfounded allegations against the people accusing him of crime.”

He went on: “Everybody thinks the ordeal the family was put through was terrible and they’d already suffered absolutely appallingly from their bereavement and then all this stuff is put to them in court.

“It’s quite dreadful, There can’t be anybody who doesn’t feel huge sympathy for the victims of a dreadful crime.

“But unfortunately when victims and witnesses find themselves in a trial, it’s quite often distressing.

“We do have a system where the defendant’s entitled to put his defence.”