THE owner of a Hampshire merchant builders' business allowed detectives investigating the murder of a devout churchgoing pensioner to use his premises as a temporary police station to trap her killer.

But the irony, was that the killer was unmasked as the builder's son-in-law.

David Adams had attacked retired teacher Helen Malloy with a glass jar and then tried to set fire to her body. After he had torched the premises, the part-time fireman joined colleagues to tackle the flames.

Harold Beale's office was virtually opposite the terrace home of the 78-year-old who had predominately taught at schools in Gosport and Lymington.

There had been a series of arson attacks in the row of houses in which she lived and firemen had tackled a mystery blaze at her property only six weeks earlier when a shed adjoining her kitchen caught alight. Neighbours rescued her unhurt.

Billowing smoke The same couple again saw smoke billowing from her house on the second occasion and alerted her nephew who lived a few doors away. Local schoolboy Colin Hughes called the fire service.

He told the Echo: "Flames were shooting up inside the windows and the glass was cracking with the heat."

Teams from Gosport and Fareham were on the scene in Brockenhurst Road, Gosport, within minutes but had to break down a door and smash windows to get inside.

Visibility was so restricted that Miss Malloy's body was only discovered when one fireman accidentally stepped on to it.

It was immediately apparent she had suffered severe head injuries and Detective Superintendent "Tank" Holdaway, who was stationed at Winchester, and Fareham based Chief Inspector Ben King were summoned.

A Home Office pathologist, who travelled from London to inspect the body, found Helen had died from suffocation due to the inhalation of blood from a broken nose.

Within hours, police had arrested Adams, who lived close to the murder scene in a house, which Mr Beale had provided for him, his wife, Marion, a Sunday school teacher, and their baby.

Officers detained him at a Government training centre in Southampton, where he was learning to be a lathe operator.

Mr Beale had been a station officer in the Gosport division and Adams had been keen to emulate him.

Adams appeared before Gosport magistrates the following day, September 24, 1965, when he was formally remanded in custody. But as he was being led away the slim, dark-haired defendant turned to declare: "I'm very sorry for what has happened and I never meant to harm her at all."

Adams was sent for trial six weeks later on allegations of murder and arson. The trail opened at Wiltshire Assizes, on January 14, 1966. Jurors heard a statement he had made at Gosport police station. He described how he had taken the dog for a walk late at night after drinking in several local pubs: "I climbed over a hedge into Miss Malloy's garden. I got into the house by putting my fist through a wire mesh window. I was in the kitchen when Miss Malloy came in. I hit her with my fist and she fell down. I'm sure she twisted because there was a hell of a lot of mess. I mean there was a lot of blood.