DETECTIVES investigating the murder of London schoolboy Damilola Taylor are set to quiz a Hampshire landlady after a teenager allegedly confessed to the killing.

Officers from Scotland Yard are understood to be meeting with the unnamed woman at her home in Locks Heath, near Fareham, this week after she contacted police with new information.

It is thought the youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, confessed to his landlady before going on holiday. He has not returned to the property since.

Reports claimed the teenager was in the same gang as four youths whose trial for the killing collapsed in 2002.

The Metropolitan Police last year ordered a new investigation into the murder of ten-year-old Damilola, who bled to death in a stairwell in Peckham, South East London, after being attacked by a gang of youths.

Nigerian born Damilola, who had been in the UK with his family for just 11 weeks, had been walking home when he was targeted on November 27, 2000. The youngster died on the way to hospital after being stabbed in the thigh with a broken bottle.

After the subsequent trial collapsed, his parents, Gloria and Richard Taylor, spoke of their despair and demanded that someone should pay for their son's death.

Now his family will be hoping the potential new lead in the case could help secure a longed for conviction.

Det Insp Alan Baxter, of Scotland Yard, confirmed: "We have received a call from someone who says they have new information for the inquiry. We don't know the strength of it, but we will find out."