Justice campaign grandmother dies

Flo Siddons unveiled a plaque in her memory in 2003

A Derby woman who spent 18 years campaigning to bring her granddaughter's murderer to justice has died aged 92.

Flo Siddons and her family fought to find the man who stabbed 16-year-old Lynn Siddons more than 40 times.

Her body was discovered in thick undergrowth by a canal at Barrow-on-Trent, Derbyshire, in 1978.

Michael Brookes was finally jailed in 1996 after being convicted of stabbing and strangling Lynn.

His conviction followed a rare civil suit brought by Lynn's family after police decided not to charge him with murder.

Appeal rejected

At the trial in the High Court in 1991, Mr Justice Rougier ordered Brookes to pay her family damages, declaring that he had no doubt the man was responsible for the killing.

Brookes was later tried and convicted, but appealed against the verdict in 1998, saying he could not get a fair trial following publicity about the case, but his appeal was rejected.

Flo's daughter Gail Holford, said: "It was a long hard fight but my mum was always there at the front.

"It was tiring and we sometimes wondered if we'd ever reach our goal but we did it in the end.

"At the end of the trial we were just over the moon that we had got justice for Lynn. That was all we ever wanted."

She added: "We want to pay tribute to her (Flo Siddons) for all that she achieved. She was such a lovely person and I'm so glad that she belonged to us."