Police get new lead over Bassey daughter's death

The Welsh singer has always maintained the death of Samantha Novak, 25 years ago, was not an accident or suicide.

Miss Novak, 21, was found face-down in the River Avon, near Bristol and the 250ft Clifton Suspension Bridge.

Shortly after her death, a coroner said it appeared she tumbled off the riverbank after a night out and there did not appear to be any suspicious circumstances.

But yesterday Avon and Somerset Police revealed the mother of Penny Beale, the victim of convicted killer Michael Moffat, had written to detectives saying he had claimed to be "involved in the murder" of Miss Novak.

Detective Chief Inspector Mike Carter, head of the force's major crime review team, said: "The mother of Moffat's victim wrote to us with some information in the last couple of weeks.

"Her daughter had said that Moffat told her he was involved in the murder of Samantha Novak.

"We looked at the circumstances surrounding the death six months ago after comments made by Dame Shirley Bassey. There was nothing from the coroner's report to suggest it was murder rather than suicide, however this information is obviously additional so we are making fresh inquiries."

Moffat, 47, originally from Edinburgh, was jailed for 11 years for battering girlfriend Ms Beale, 31, to death in Hastings, East Sussex, in 2001.

Moffat left Ms Beale with 123 injuries including 18 broken ribs, while her liver, spleen and lungs were also ruptured.

It is understood Moffat boasted of being in a relationship with Miss Novak when she died in 1985.

Dame Shirley, who also has an elder daughter Sharon and adopted son Mark, brought Samantha up with second husband Sergio Novak.

The singer, who lives in Monte Carlo has never accepted the death was a suicide.

In an interview last October, Dame Shirley, who is now in her 70s, broke her silence on the tragedy and told reporters she had always harboured suspicions about her daughter's death.

"If she'd jumped off the bridge, all her bones would have been broken," she said. "But there was not a bone broken. In fact she did not have a mark on her.

"So if anything, I'm suspicious about her death. They said she didn't have a mark on her, and she didn't have any water in her lungs."