A double murder suspect poured out his heart in a suicide note before he ended his own life.

John Thompson, 27, is prime suspect in the murders of Rachel Tough and Julie Smailes, both of County Durham.

Two years after his death, his widow Michelle Thompson, 32, has just been given his suicide note, written on nine scraps of paper shortly before he hanged himself in a wood.

In it Thompson begs forgiveness for wrecking her life and urged her to warn their three sons about the evils of drugs.

Michelle said the note has further convinced her that her husband was not involved in the murder of Julie Smailes.

Julie, 27, a school friend of Michelle's, was found stabbed and strangled in her blazing house at Leadgate, Consett, County Durham, in 1996. No one has ever been charged with the killing.

In August 1998, a neighbour and family friend of the Thompsons, Rachel Tough, 18, was found battered to death in the kitchen of Thompson's home in Moorside, near Consett.

Thompson vanished after the killing and his body was found hanging in a nearby wood a week later.

North Durham Coroner Andrew Tweddle said at last year's inquest on Rachel that he had no doubt Thompson was directly involved in her death.

And earlier this year police said new DNA tests revealed Thompson had been present in Julie's house.

Thompson had never been able to hide his drug habit from his wife, particularly his use of amphetamines.

In his last letter to Michelle, Thompson pleaded with his wife to forgive him.

He wrote: "I have caused you and the bairns enough misery and pain so I have decided to leave you before I destroy all your lives completely - if I haven't done that already.

"When they (the children) get older remind them at least once a week about how drugs ruined our lives."

Since her husband's death and publicity surrounding the two murders Michelle and her children, now aged seven, five and two, have moved to another address in the Consett area.