Jail for murder probe offenders

Elsie Hughes died the day after she was attacked

Two men have been jailed after admitting perverting the course of justice in relation to the murder of a 90-year-old woman.

Elsie Hughes died the day after she was attacked at her home in Abermorddu, near Wrexham, in September.

Charles Jones, 33, and John Thomas, 37, were sentenced for disposing of a blue Ford Escort van police were trying to trace as part of their investigation.

The judge told the men they had impeded the murder investigation.

Jones, from Buckley, Flintshire, was jailed for 10 months after Judge Thomas Teague QC at Mold Crown Court gave him credit for an early guilty plea.

However, Thomas, of Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, was jailed for 12 months.

He also pleaded guilty, but falsely claimed he was unaware police were searching for the van.

Gardening work

The judge said it was accepted that neither man was involved in the murder itself, but nevertheless a jail sentence was inevitable for the "extremely serious matter - impeding a murder investigation."

The court earlier heard the pair had been doing gardening work for Mrs Hughes in the months leading up to her death.

Her daughter had been angry to find them having a cup of tea with her, as they were charging £250 to lop a bush.

The court was told that Mrs Hughes, a retired school cook, died following an attack at her home, where she lived alone, on 8 September, 2005.

A neighbour had heard a noise, went out to investigate, and saw a man wearing a hood walking away up the street.

A short time later saw a blue Ford Escort van pulled out of an area nearby named Crossways.

The following day police were doing a trawl of known vehicles locally and an officer visited Thomas' home and left a message with a teenage girl.

Thomas accepted that he had made a phone call on 12 September 2005 to a man to collect the van and take it to a scrap metal merchant in Widnes.

It had not been possible to recover the vehicle.

Detectives are still hunting the killer or killers of Mrs Hughes.

About £200 in cash was stolen from her home and police believe the motive was theft.

Officers have appealed for information about a man in a hooded top who was seen in the area on the night she was attacked.

Last December, detectives offered a £30,000 reward for information that could lead to arrest and conviction.