THE family of murdered pizza delivery girl Julie Hogg are still fighting for justice, a year after her murderer confessed to the crime.

Mother-of-one Julie disappeared in November 1989. Her mutilated body was found by her mother, Ann Ming, three months later, hidden behind the bath in her Billingham home .

Despite walking free from court twice, when juries failed to reach a verdict on Julie's murder, Billingham man Billy Dunlop later admitted to a prison officer that he had carried out the crime and had lied under oath. On April 14 last year, he pleaded guilty to two charges of perjury at Teesside Crown Court.

He is serving six years for perjury, added to a seven-year sentence for assault.

Meanwhile, Julie's family are embroiled in a fight to change the law so that Dunlop can be tried again for murder.

The Northern Echo and its readers have joined Mrs Ming, in campaigning for the double jeopardy law to be scrapped so that, in exceptional cases, people could be tried again for a serious crime.

In the past year, the fight for justice has taken Mrs Ming and her husband, Charlie, to London to meet Home Secretary Jack Straw to call directly for a change in the law.

Mrs Ming said: "We do not want revenge, we just want justice. We want this man off the streets so he can't kill again."

The signatures of hundreds of Northern Echo readers who support the Mings were also taken to London and handed over to the Home Secretary.

Since the London visit, the Law Commission has backed the call for a change in the double jeopardy law, allowing retrials if new evidence such as DNA or a confession is uncovered.

Mr Straw has said he will wait for another inquiry into the whole legal system, expected later this year, before making a decision on the future of double jeopardy.

Since Dunlop admitted strangling Julie, Mr and Mrs Ming have also been fighting to get their daughter's death certificate changed.

Originally, the cause of death was recorded as unknown but the Mings want to see it changed in the light of Dunlop's confession.

Whatever happens in the next 12 months, the couple are determined to continue their quest for justice for Julie.