Prostitute murder 'closed' 40 years on

Patricia Simpson was found strangled with a chiffon scarf after picking up a client

Police in south Wales fear there is little chance of putting on trial an elderly man in jail in Israel who has confessed to the 40-year-old murder of a Cardiff prostitute.

The man, aged 73 and who is serving 11 years for manslaughter, has admitted strangling Patricia Simpson, 20, after picking her up in the infamous former Tiger Bay area of the Welsh capital in November 1963.

He made the confession after South Wales Police reopened the case - which had remained unsolved despite an investigation by Scotland Yard - four years ago following a tip-off.

But detectives - who have now formally said they are no longer looking for anyone else in the case - hope the man's age will not prevent him being extradited to Britain for trial when he is released from prison late next year.

Officers reopened the file on Ms Simpson's murder and two flew out to Israel to interview the Cardiff man after receiving new information on the long-standing inquiry.

At the moment it is not in the public interest to bring the suspect back to Britain considering his age - but that may change when he is freed Head of South Wales CID

After being quizzed for two days, the man admitted strangling Ms Simpson and gave details which only the killer would have known.

The revelation has only now been made public.

Ms Simpson was a busy vice girl who plied her trade in Cardiff's docklands, then one of the most notorious red light districts in Britain.

Other working girls and the police knew her as "the silver queen" because her blonde hair would shimmer under the street lights.

Born in Warrington, Cheshire, she came to Cardiff in the swinging sixties when the Beatles were the rising stars of the pop scene and Harold MacMillan was Prime Minister.

Scotland Yard investigated Ms Simpson's murder - she was found strangled with a chiffon scarf.

She lived in a ground floor flat in South Luton Place, Adamstown, but is thought to have been strangled in a car after picking up a client.

Her half-naked body was found in a quarry at Pentyrch, seven miles north of the city. She had been strangled with a chiffon scarf.

Detectives from Scotland Yard were unable to solve the case and a year later the murder file was marked unsolved and left to gather dust - until the lead that the killer was already in jail 3,000 miles away in Israel.

Detective Chief Superintedent Wynne Phillips, head of South Wales CID, said: "We are astounded to solve this crime after all those years.

"We will never know exactly what happened in his car that night but she was asphyxiated by strangulation.

"He knew details about the murder that only he could have known - we are certain we have our man."

The man, then his early thirties, later fled to Israel to work on a kibbutz where he met a local woman, married her and had children.

Freed next year

But he was to kill twice more. His shot his wife dead with a machine gun but convinced a jury it was an accident. Then in the early nineties he struck again - this time killing a male associate. He was jailed for 11 years for manslaughter.

But the man - who has not been named - may never stand trial in the UK because of his age, and because he is already in prison.

The Crown Prosecution Service will review the case when he is freed from his sentence late next year.

Mr Phillips said: "The law in Israel meant he was interviewed without a solicitor present. He would have to be extradited, interviewed on tape with a solicitor and all the legal constraints met.

"The case is closed as far as we are not looking for anyone else in connection with the murder of Patricia Simpson.

"At the moment it is not in the public interest to bring the suspect back to Britain considering his age and the fact he is already serving a substantial prison term. But that may change when he is freed."

But despite the apparent breakthrough, detectives have failed to find any of Ms Simpson's relatives.