POLICE have said it would take a 'major breakthrough' to get justice for the murder of Hampshire pensioner Georgina Edmonds.

Detective Inspector David Nealon today told an inquest in Winchester the investigation into the 77-year-old's murder would never close.

But speaking to the Daily Echo after the inquest he said: “The investigation will continue but it would take significant new evidence to bring anyone else to trial.”

Mrs Edmonds was tortured with a knife and then battered to death with a marble rolling pin at her home in Kiln Lane, Brambridge, near Eastleigh, on January 11, 2008.

The inquest followed a murder trial in January where a jury cleared Matthew Hamlen, of Hamilton Road, Eastleigh, of the crime.

Det Insp Nealon added 12 other people had been arrested in relation to the murder but all had been eliminated as suspects.

Grahame Short, Coroner for Central Hampshire, recorded a verdict of death due to unlawful killing.