THIS is the story of one of the most horrific murders to happen in the North-East in recent years, written by the mother of the victim.

Young Billingham mother Julie Hogg was murdered by violent local man Billy Dunlop, who hid her body behind a bath panel.

When he was tried for her murder the first time, he was aquitted, but later boasted in public about her murder and confessed to a prison officer.

Julie’s mother, who discovered the badly decomposed body of her daughter, campaigned endlessly to end the double jeopardy law, which says that a person cannot be tried for the same crime twice.

For the Love of Julie, now out in paperback, is a harrowing account of events from Julie’s murder and Ann’s 17-year campaign to Dunlop’s eventual guilty plea and subsequent life imprisonment.