Twitter is an amazing thing....

I've been desperately trying to track down Darlington mum Pat Gibson, whose inspirational campaign changed Britain's murder laws after her son Michael was fatally injured in an attack.

Pat's campaign, supported by The Northern Echo and MP Alan Milburn, scrapped the ancient year and a day rule which enabled killers to literally get away with murder.The rule meant that if the victim of an assault lived for 366 days or more, their attacker could not be charged with anything more serious than grievous bodily harm.

Going through some old files, I'd noticed that the first reading of a House of Commons Bill to amend the law had been on April 12, 1994 - 20 years ago this weekend. It was the launch of the legal process which led to the rule rightly being consigned to history.

I had an address for Pat in the Faverdale area of Darlington but she no longer lived there so I put out an appeal on Twitter. Within an hour, I'd been contacted by former friends of Michael. They put me in touch with Michael's brother David , who now lives in Chicago, and he got in touch through email.

The result was that Pat phoned me today. She'd emigrated to Spain in 2002 and has recently returned to this country. She now lives in West Cornforth, County Durham.

It was fantastic to talk to her and to look back at what the campaign meant. The piece resulting from the interview will be published in Monday's paper.

Thank you to everyone who retweeted the appeal.

* The picture shows Pat with her son David after she became Darlington's first Citizen of the Year in 1995.

 

The Northern Echo: