New evidence in body on the beach murder

Apr 11 2010 by Adam Jupp, Sunday Sun

A NEW twist in the sensational body on the beach murder mystery could see the convicted killer freed.

Murderer John Earle has already spent 12 years behind bars after being found guilty of the slaying that gripped the region in the summer of 1997.

The corpse of down and out Peter Halliday was found on Embleton Beach, in Northumberland, having been dumped in the North Sea days earlier.

Mr Halliday, 67, had been living rough with Earle and his girlfriend Shirley Waddington in a farmer’s barn near Alnwick Castle, when a fight broke out between the three.

The eccentric gentleman of the road died of injuries sustained during the scrap in the barn but Earle, along with another man, Stephen Williams, moved his body and hurled it into the sea, which led to it washing up beneath the dramatic ruin of Dunstanburgh Castle.

Earle, now 44, claimed it was his partner who had killed Mr Halliday but a Newcastle Crown Court jury convicted him of the brutal murder by a majority of 10 to two.

The pony-tailed drifter has always protested his innocence from his prison cell but failed in an attempt to clear his name at the Court of Appeal in 1999.

But now the case has taken a dramatic new twist after the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has ruled there is a realistic prospect he may have been the victim of a miscarriage of justice – giving him hope of freedom.

The decision centres around fresh forensic evidence now available to Earle’s legal team due to advances in DNA testing since the original trial.

It means Earle, originally from Athlone in the Irish Republic and known as ‘Irish Sean’, could walk free from jail if it is ruled his conviction is no longer safe.

A CCRC spokesman confirmed: “We have considered new scientific evidence and, on the strength of that, we have referred the case back to the Court of Appeal because we believe that there is a real possibility that it will be concluded that the conviction is unsafe and that it will be quashed.”

Mr Halliday - known as Jim - had been living in Pennywells Barn with Earle and Ms Waddington.

At around 4.30pm on Saturday August 2 1997, the couple arrived back at the barn and started arguing with Mr Halliday, which led to a struggle and the 67-year-old was severely beaten and ultimately strangled.