CLOSE to tears, Joy Gilmour recalled how she had been forced to leave her native North-East to start a new life in Ireland.

The grief she felt over the murder of her daughter, Julie, had been too much to bear and she could no longer live at her home in Consett because there were too many painful memories.

Even now, almost eight years on, those memories flood back whenever she returns to her home town.

But it is there, in Consett and nearby Leadgate where her daughter was found, that the key to her murder lies.

Though detectives have named John Thompson as one of Miss Smailes' killers, three other men are believed to have been involved. Officers have been given off-the-record information naming the suspects, but said people in the area were too scared to come forward.

Amazingly, Mrs Gilmour, who police called a remarkable woman, feels a small amount of compassion for her daughter's killer.

"Despite the anger, the hurt, the mixed emotions, I felt compassion for Thompson. For him to be in such a frame of mind where the only way out was to kill himself, I can feel a small amount of compassion for that," she said.

Miss Smailes had spent the evening with her mother at home the night she died. She later drove her mother home to Consett in her Vauxhall Astra car at about 10.30pm. It was the last time Mrs Gilmour saw her daughter. At 2.30am Miss Smailes' body was discovered . One of her hands had been bound and the killer had set several fires in the house to destroy evidence.

More than 6,000 people were interviewed, 3,000 vehicles checked and over 1,100 statements were taken during the course of the investigation, in one of County Durham's biggest manhunts in recent history.

Detectives had originally ruled out Thompson as a suspect because of strong alibis. His wife, Michelle, had vehemently denied her husband was a serial killer.

In August 1998, Thompson killed babysitter Rachel Tough, who lived three doors from him, by hitting her with a hammer. Days later he took his own life knowing he had also been responsible for Ms Smailes' death.

For Mrs Gilmour, the pain of her daughter's death will live on, but she hopes she will gain closure if the other killers are brought to justice.