A MOTHER'S emotional appeal for help in catching her son's killers has helped police to make a possible breakthrough.

Earlier this month detectives arrested and questioned two people over the decade-old killing of takeaway delivery man Paul Logan, of Blackhill, near Consett.

He was killed after a bogus caller lured him to a remote farmhouse at nearby Shotley Bridge.

The 25-year-old was ambushed and beaten to death. His body was found on Christmas Eve 1993.

Officers from Northumbria Police said they had arrested a man and a woman in the South West of England. They were released on police bail.

In October this year, ahead of the tenth anniversary of Mr Logan's murder, his mother, Elsie, 57, begged for help in ending the family's torture by bringing his killers to justice.

The officer in charge of the case said that her renewed plea for someone to break their ten-year silence had led to the recent breakthrough.

Det Supt Ian Sharp said that as a result of that appeal, fresh information had come to light. A man and a woman had been arrested as part of the continuing inquiries into Mr Logan's murder.

A team of detectives interviewed the suspects, who were held at separate police stations in the South-West.

Detectives revealed that the pair were originally from the Shotley Bridge area, but refused to identify them or give out any further details.

The arrests are the latest in many made by police working on the case over the past ten years.

Mrs Logan, speaking from her home in Shotley Bridge, said the family were praying that this latest news would finally see the killers brought to court.

"I just hope to God that they are right this time," she said.

"We need to see an end to this so all the family can get on with our lives.

"The appeal was very hard to do, but it seems that maybe it shook someone or something up. I really hope it did.

"But you learn to be cautious and you never stop hurting."

Paul Logan, a delivery driver for the Golden Flower Chinese restaurant, arrived at Blue House Farm, near Shotley Bridge, just before 10pm on December 23.

When he called at the door, he was told by the householder that no meal had been ordered.

He left the house but the owners' suspicions were aroused later that evening when they noticed his cream-coloured Peugeot car was still at the end of the lane leading to the farm.

Police found the car empty and, after a search in blizzard conditions, found his snow-covered body about 50 yards away, at around 2.15am on Christmas Eve.

He had suffered massive head injuries, inflicted by a blunt instrument that has still not been recovered. Detectives have always maintained that there were at least two people directly involved in his murder.

He left a widow, Pamela, and two children, Natalie, now aged ten, and Michael, now 14.

His parents' home in Shotley Bridge is once again bare of Christmas decorations this year.

"You don't see decorations in my house at Christmas," said Mrs Logan.

"The year Paul died, I had to take down over two hundred Christmas cards and replace them with sympathy cards. It is a devastating thing."

Following Paul's death, Mrs Logan and her husband, Hugh, 64, put up a reward of £10,000 for information leading to the conviction or his killers, and the police information phoneline Crimestoppers also offered a further £5,000.

The exhaustive ten-year hunt for the killers has seen detectives interview more than 2,270 people and take over 900 statements.

The case has taken several twists, including the arrest and subsequent release of ten men in 1997, and the arrest and release of another man in September 1998.