THE man freed after 27-years of wrongful imprisonment for rape and murder has now been charged with a new sexual assault.

Sean Hodgson was freed last year after having his conviction for the rape and murder of Teresa De Simone in 1979, overturned.

Her body was found in her car at the rear of the Tom Tackle pub in Commercial Road, Southampton, and Hodgson was sentenced three years later.

Hodgson, now 59, this week appeared before Newton Aycliffe magistrates, County Durham, accused of committing a rape and sexual assault. He did not enter a plea and has been remanded in custody.

The case will now be heard at Durham Crown Court.

Last year, Teresa De Simone's killer was named as David Lace, who committed suicide in 1988, aged 26.

His body was exhumed from a cemetery in Portsmouth in order for DNA tests to be carried out to confirm his identity.