THE self-confessed killer of pizza delivery girl Julie Hogg may yet face a second trial for her murder after a senior legal body recommended a change in the double jeopardy law.

Billy Dunlop, 37, was twice tried and finally acquitted in 1991 of murdering the mother-of-one.

Protected by Britain's antiquated double jeopardy law, which ruled he could not be tried again for murder, Dunlop from Billingham confessed at a perjury trial last year to killing Julie.

But he could soon face a retrial after it emerged the Government is being urged to scrap the double jeopardy ruling - and apply the change retrospectively.

The Northern Echo, which has campaigned vigorously for a change in the law, has learnt that the Law Commission will strongly recommend to Parliament next week that appeal courts are given the power to order a retrial, "where there is compelling new evidence of guilt and where the court is satisfied that it is in the interest of justice to quash and acquittal".

The Commission also recommends the changes apply retrospectively.

Dunlop outraged Julie's parents, Ann and Charlie Ming, and their supporters when he was given leave last year to appeal against his six-year prison sentence for perjury. His appeal failed.

Mrs Ming has for 11 years tirelessly campaigned for justice for her daughter - backed by The Northern Echo's Criminal Injustice campaign.

Last night, she said: "I will have to see it in black-and-white before I say anything, but, if it is true, we will be over the moon. And we will have a party. But I will just have to wait and see."

Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate, who has lobbied the Home Office on the Mings' behalf, said: "This is absolutely brilliant - a major coup. Justice is justice, regardless of whether it is in the future or past.

"In the Mings' case it is a classic; in essence, someone getting away with murder.''

Last year, Stockton North MP Frank Cook took Mr and Mrs Ming to see Home Secretary Jack Straw.

Julie went missing on November 16 1989. Mrs Ming discovered her daughter's decaying corpse, stuffed behind a bath panel, in February the following year.

A change in the law could also effect the hunt for the murderers of black teenager Stephen Lawrence