HE went for a jog – and committed a murder.

Drunk on a lethal cocktail of brandy, lager and rum, soldier Mark Gillett diverted off his run across Salisbury Plain and broke into the council maisonette of an elderly widow.

There he brutally raped 83-year-old Mary Huntley and then ferociously struck her about the head.

The horrific killing in the village of Netheravon on April 5, 1982, was discovered after a retired civil servant saw smoke coming from under the front door of her ground floor maisonette. Three passers-by had just managed to fight their way into the smoke-filled flat when fire crews arrived on the scene.

Initially they found a wooden chair on fire in the sitting room but probing further into the premises, found Mrs Huntley’s bloodstained body.

Supt Tony Pointer, deputy head of Wiltshire CID, led the investigation, drafting in a 35-strong team of detectives. He told the Echo no weapon had been recovered and there appeared no motive.

Mrs Huntley was a popular figure in Netheravon, having lived in the village for about 50 years and friends were left stunned by her demise.

Florence Spooner, 80, who lived in the same block of four flats, said: “We had been neighbours for 30 years. We used to live in the same row of cottages and moved here eight years ago.”

Within hours, police had made an arrest. At the opening of Mrs Huntley’s inquest, the Wiltshire Coroner John Elgar named him as Lance Corporal Mark Gillett, a married man with a young son in Lancashire, and stationed with the 7th Army Air Corps at the Airfield Camp, Netheravon.

Home Office pathologist Mark Kennard revealed Mrs Huntley had died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Gillett appeared at Winchester Crown Court on October 7, 1982 when he admitted murdering and raping the octogenerian in her bed, as well as breaking into her home.

Gillett, who was jailed for life, said he was so drunk he could hardly remember what had happened.