Second man faces trial for widow's murder

Five years after Richard Monteith was jailed for killing Diana Dyson, Spanish police have said a second man – Brian Smith – will go on trial for the killing.

Twice-widowed Mrs Dyson, 63, was beaten over the head with a metal bar, knifed in the throat and eventually suffocated at her apartment in Torremolinos, on the Costa Del Sol, in 2002.

She had moved there from Sheffield only a matter of weeks earlier, after her husband, vet Leonard Horne, killed himself at the age of 93.

In 2005, Monteith, from Whitley Bay in Tyneside, was jailed for 17 years for the murder and his wife, Anne-Marie, received a 15-month prison sentence for handling stolen goods.

The couple, who befriended Mrs Dyson after she went to stay in Spain, were arrested following the discovery of her body, four days after her death.

A large quantity of expensive jewellery belonging to Mrs Dyson, who formerly lived at Norwood Road, Fir Vale, Sheffield, was later found at the Monteith's home in the resort.

At his trial, Monteith argued that 179 pieces of jewellery, several of great value, had been a present and that he had no part in her murder. But his claims were dismissed by judges.

During the trial Monteith accused Smith, from Dove Street in Cullercoats, of the killing, claiming he was an innocent bystander.

The former coal miner said his only part in the crime was to take Smith to the widow's apartment and gain entry.

At the time, Smith was questioned and eliminated from the inquiry, but he has now been re-arrested while on holiday in Benidorm and is currently in custody. Under Spanish law, he has not been charged, but has been told he will stand trial.