THE solicitor representing the man wrongly jailed for 27 years for the murder of Teresa De Simone this morning told of his shock at news that the prime suspect had confessed to the murder.

Julian Young, who successfully took the case of Sean Hodgson to the appeal courts in March this year, said it was clear "mistakes had been made" stretching back to the 1980's because these details have never been divulged before.

The Daily Echo this morning broke the news to Mr Young who said: "It is a total surprise that this has never been raised before and Mr Hodgson's defence team at the time and of course at the appeal hearing, have never known anything about it."

He said he would now be taking steps to inform Mr Hodgson of the significant developments, including the exhumation of the body of the prime suspect from a Hampshire graveyard this morning.

Mr Young added that he did not lay any blame with the current team charged with reinvestigating the murder of Teresa, who was found dead in her car behind the Tom Tackle pub where she worked part time as a bar maid in December 1979.