Neighbour guilty of 1988 murder

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/7702375.stm

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A 44-year-old man has been convicted of beating and throttling to death his former neighbour 20 years ago.

The body of Elizabeth Smyth, 66, was found in her flat in Finaghy, Belfast, in October 1988.

William James Stevenson, of Coast Road, Ballygally, was told by the judge at Belfast Crown Court: "You may not be released at all."

Stevenson had been questioned about the murder at the time. The case was reopened three years ago.

The PSNI's Serious Crime Review Team, established to reinvestigate unsolved murders, re-examined forensic evidence from the initial investigation and were able to use Stevenson's DNA to link him to both Ms Smyth and the murder scene.

Ms Smyth, a retired civil servant known to her friends as Lily, had been due to attend a harvest service with her local church choir on 9 October 1988.

When she failed to show up and after several unsuccessful attempts were made to reach her by phone, two friends called at her flat where her body was discovered.

Mr Stevenson, who lived in a flat opposite Ms Smyth at the time, was arrested four days after the killing but was subsequently released without charge. He was rearrested last summer.