THE mother of a murdered North-East woman is telling the story of her fight for justice on European television.

A German television company has visited Ann Ming and her family, on Teesside, to talk about the murder of her daughter, Julie Hogg.

Julie, who had one child, was murdered 12 years ago.

Billingham man Billy Dunlop was acquitted of murder after two juries failed to agree on a verdict.

Dunlop later confessed to 22-year-old Julie's murder, but could not be made to stand trial for it, because of the double jeopardy rule, which states a person can only be tried once for a crime.

Instead, Dunlop received a seven-year perjury sentence.

Since Dunlop's confession, Mrs Ming and her husband Charlie have been campaigning for a change in the law, so that in exceptional cases, where there is new evidence, someone can be retried.

The Mings' campaign, which is backed by The Northern Echo, will now feature on television in Germany.

She said: "If we end up having to go to the Court of Human Rights some of the judges will be from Germany, so it will help if they know the background to the case.

"The station contacted me after our story was featured on ITV and said people in Germany would be very interested in our story.

"We want as many people as possible to know about Julie, so we can keep her case in the public eye."

A reported 8.8 million people watched the ITV show two weeks ago, about Julie's case, and The Northern Echo was inundated with pledges of support from readers following the programme.

The Law Commission has backed a change in the law but it is not known if changes would be retrospective, allowing retrial of Dunlop.

There are a handful of cases, including the murder of Stephen Lawrence, that would be affected by a change in law, but Julie's is the only one involving a self-confessed killer.

Mr and Mrs Ming had been told a Government White Paper on possible changes to the law would be published in late spring, but they are still waiting for news.

Mrs Ming said: "It is getting more and more frustrating as time goes by.

"We want to know if the Government will back us."

Read more about the Criminal Injustice campaign here