HE’S the detective whose relentless determination is to thank for solving one of Hampshire’s most difficult murders.

Martin Chudley was one of a team of police officers who will never forget January 20, 2012 – the day they watched as a man they were sure had brutally killed pensioner Georgina Edmonds walked free from court.

For the officer who had been in charge of gathering the forensic evidence for the prosecution case, it was a particularly difficult pill to swallow.

But today he has been hailed a “hero” by the family of Mrs Edmonds, who say his “skill and sheer dogged determination” brought their mother’s killer to justice at long last.

Daily Echo: Georgina Edmonds' cottage

Harry and Doddie Edmonds called for Detective Inspector Chudley’s “extraordinary and exemplary efforts” to be honoured publicly as they praised the work of Hampshire police in bringing the case back to court.

Speaking to the Daily Echo, Det Insp Chudley described how he had been disappointed when the first jury acquitted Hamlen of murder in 2012 and he walked out of court a free man.

He said: “We never underestimated the difficult job the jury had to do and we had no choice but to accept their decision and move on.”

But he was not so willing to put the case to bed without ensuring every last nagging detail had been checked.

Firmly in his mind was a persistence for one final piece of DNA testing to be done – the tapings from a tiny section of Mrs Edmonds’ blouse showing skin cells and hair follicles, which he had been repeatedly told was unlikely to yield any result.

But he refused to give up.

He said: “My head was always about why you couldn’t just put all of the skin cells we had obtained, into a pot, then find the male DNA profile in it and that would be it, yet the scientists would say it would never be as simple as that.

“But I always felt that one day the skin flakes we had would give us the answer.”

Det Insp Chudley, who was the crime scene manager when Mrs Edmonds was murdered, and his team spent two weeks at the scene, taking swabs and tapings in the hope of finding crucial prints and DNA that would lead them to their killer – but it was not easy task.

He described how he even considered taking a sample of air from the room, in the hope that one day many years down the line, there would be such great advances in forensic science hat it could provide them with the answer.

He did not for one minute think the crucial piece of evidence they needed to get Hamlen convicted was at his fingertips.

Daily Echo: Det Insp Chudley

But the decision was taken to test the samples before the case was put on file until such day of a momentous advance in forensic evidence testing – and it brought the breakthrough they needed.

Initial results found a clear profile and then there was a nervous wait for advanced techniques which found that the DNA was that of a man, with a match probability of 26 million to one.

Det Insp Chudley said: “I didn’t really know how to react. I didn’t really know at that time all about double jeopardy cases and how high the threshold is that you have to reach to get someone back before a court.

“It was an exciting moment, but at the same time you’re not quite sure what it will mean.

“We had, many times, reviewed what we had in terms of forensics and what else we could still do. We were all happy that there were no more active lines of enquiry that we could take. There was no obvious forensic opportunity.

“It was a case of having to put it all in a box until such time that there was a major forensic advancement.

“I thought that it would be in that box for a long, long time. I didn’t think in a million years that it would be as soon as it was.”

He added: “You are thinking naturally of the family and what on earth they will make of this.

“I would say it was simply my job. I was the crime scene manager and if anyone was going to push that, it was me.”

But he refuses to take all the credit for getting the case – Hampshire’s first ever double jeopardy hearing – back to court, openly admitting he feels awkward at the suggestion.

Det Insp Chudley said: “I get free cups of tea now whenever I visit the major crime team, that’s enough of a reward for me.

“You are there to do a job, to find those responsible and discover what happened and to ultimately give a family some sense of peace.

“I don’t think there are words to describe how I feel now – probably just relief. It is just relief and both personal and professional satisfaction that this is a job done.”