A convicted murderer who has spent almost half his life in prison is expected to be freed by the Appeal Court today after one of the longest miscarriages of justice.
 
DNA evidence has cleared Sean Hodgson of murder ©Southern Daily Echo

Sean Hodgson, 58, was jailed in 1982 for strangling young barmaid Teresa De Simone and leaving her body near the Southampton pub where she worked.

A jury found him guilty after hearing he had confessed the killing to a priest and police, although he retracted those statements with his lawyer arguing that he was a pathological liar.

Other evidence against him included analysis of semen found at the murder scene, which suggested the killer had the blood group A or AB.

Mr Hodgson fell within that blood group - but so did a third of Britain’s male population at the time.
He said he had raped and killed Miss De Simone, 22, and later repeated the confession to police, before denying his involvement during his trial.

Crime correspondent Martin Brunt

DNA tests, which were not available until 1986, have since established the material did not come from Mr Hodgson.

Miss De Simone’s partially-clothes body was found in her car parked underneath the pub in December 1979.

Mr Hodgson made his first admission to a chaplain in prison, where he was serving a sentence for car theft.

He said he had raped and killed Miss De Simone, 22, and later repeated the confession to police, before denying his involvement during his trial.

It is thought he was given a tariff, a minimum sentence, of 12 years but was never granted parole because he continued to deny his guilt.
 
Teresa De Simone was strangled

It is believed an appeal was rejected in 1983.

His new appeal was launched last year after he contacted a lawyer through an advert in a prison newspaper.

The case has been fast-tracked by the Criminal Cases Review Commission which quickly recommended that his conviction was unsafe.

Mr Hodgson suffers from a number of mental health conditions and will need much specialised care to help him get used to life outside prison.

Hampshire police are expected to announce the re-opening of the case based on the new DNA evidence, but they have no new suspect yet.

The Crown Prosecution Service will not challenge the appeal and it has been asked to review dozens of similar cases where pre-DNA scientific evidence played a crucial role in convictions.
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