BBC News Online: UK: England

Man charged over 1975 murder

No trace was found of Jonathan and Victoria

John Allen was charged on Tuesday after answering bail at a police station in Dorset following his arrest in October.

His wife Pat Allen was 39 when she disappeared from her Devon home, in May 1975, along with her son Jonathan, seven, and daughter Victoria, five.

It led to one of the country's biggest missing-person investigations.

No trace of them has ever been found.

Officers from Devon and Cornwall Police detained Mr Allen in the Bournemouth area in October.

Detectives reopened files on the case last year.

A police spokesman said at the time: "We have a policy in force to look at unsolved cases of missing persons after so many years, and review them using modern techniques."

Mr Allen has always denied any involvement in the disappearance of the family from Salcombe, Devon.

Mr Allen, who is now living near Poole, in Dorset, will appear before Torbay magistrates on Wednesday.