A MAN was charged last night with the murder of Julie Smailes - almost five years to the day since her death.

Darren Willis, who was arrested early yesterday by detectives, lives a few hundred yards from the house in Leadgate, County Durham, where Julie's body was found in the early hours of October 30, 1996.

Mr Willis was taken to Durham City police station for questioning.

The 30-year-old, of Park Villas, is due to appear before magistrates this morning.

Earlier, a spokesman for Durham Police said: "A team of four detectives from the headquarters-based Major Crime Team made the arrest at about 8am."

The murder of the 27-year-old computer sales manager traumatised the small community of Leadgate.

That sense of shock has remained during the ensuing years.

Firefighters answering a call to a house fire came across Julie's body in a smoke-logged room of her Wingrove Terrace home.

Her hands had been bound, she had been strangled and stabbed more than 50 times. Police, who believe the fires were started in a deliberate attempt to destroy any evidence, think she bled to death.

The discovery of Julie's body led to one of the biggest manhunts in County Durham's recent history.

Julie, described by friends and relatives as a fun-loving but quiet and very intelligent girl, subscribed to lonely hearts columns and had met her then boyfriend, Peter Nelson, of Darlington, through a column in The Northern Echo.

A reward of £10,000 for information leading to the arrest of Julie's killers was put up by her employers, Sun Microsystems, of Greencroft near Stanley.

Detectives have interviewed more than 7,000 people, checked more than 3,000 vehicles and taken more than 1,100 statements in the search for the vital clue which would finally solve the case.

Police claimed a major breakthrough in the investigation after the 1998 murder of 18-year-old babysitter Rachel Tough.

She was found battered to death in the home of neighbour John Thompson in Moorside, near Consett.

Thompson, a family friend of Julie Smailes, was found hanged in woods at a nearby beauty spot a few days later.

During the police investigation into Rachel's murder, information was passed to detectives which pointed to Thompson as the prime suspect in the killing of Julie.

In the spring of last year, after new forensic tests and advances in DNA technology, police said up to four people, including John Thompson, may have been involved in Julie's murder.

Yesterday, a police spokes-man said: "We are unable to release too much information at this time, but naturally it is a new breakthrough that has led to the arrest."

Yesterday, Thompson's widow, Michelle, reiterated that her late husband had nothing to do with the murder.

Julie's sister, Wendy, who was arrested in the early days of the inquiry in connection with the killing before being cleared by police, said yesterday she had been in touch with her mother, Joy Gilmour, who has left her home in Consett and is making a new life for herself in Ireland.

Miss Smailes said: "We are being kept informed.