VICTORY looks certain for a campaign by The Northern Echo to stop killers getting away with murder.

Under the current double jeopardy rule, defendants cannot be retried once acquitted, even if they later confess or if police discover new evidence.

But the Criminal Justice Bill, announced in the Queen's Speech yesterday, will ditch the 800-year-old rule in murder cases.

MPs in the region are confident that the change will be retrospective.

This is a triumph for a Teesside family who have battled to get the archaic loophole closed on behalf of their murdered daughter.

Billy Dunlop was acquitted of the 1989 killing in Billingham of single mother Julie Hogg, 22, after a jury twice failed to agree on a verdict.

But he later confessed to killing Julie to a prison officer, and last year was jailed for six years after pleading guilty to two counts of lying on oath.

Ann and Charlie Ming, from Billingham, have constantly campaigned for Dunlop to face justice for their daughter's murder.

Mrs Ming, who made a personal appeal to previous Home Secretary Jack Straw to change the law, said: "We are keeping our fingers crossed that it is retrospective.

"We will have to see what happens, but any proposal to scrap double jeopardy is brilliant."

Asked if the change in the law would be retrospective, a Home Office spokesman said last night full details would only emerge when the Bill is put before Parliament.

But the Law Commission is recommending that the change is backdated.

Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate, a former senior County Durham policeman turned Home Office advisor, has been calling since 1997 for the double jeopardy law to be scrapped, and has vigorously campaigned on the Mings' behalf. "I am delighted," he said last night. "It puts victims before criminals.

"I have always said that a wrongful acquittal was just as important a miscarriage of justice as a wrongful conviction."

Stockton North MP Frank Cook said: "My understanding is it will be retrospective and I'm very pleased to have played some small part in achieving this."

Civil rights group Liberty, the Law Society and the Liberal Democrats are concerned that scrapping double jeopardy would make it difficult for a defendant to receive a fair trial.

But David Hines, of the North-East Victims' Association, said: "People should not be allowed to get away with murder."

Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Wilson, who led the Julie Hogg murder investigation, said the force would need to see the Bill before commenting in detail. But he added: "Our prime concern in all matters is to ensure justice is done."

The Bill could also mean a retrial of the alleged killers of black London teenager Stephen Lawrence, if new evidence was found.

Read more about the criminal injustice campaign here.