Mark Corley killing: Father sets up support group

Mark Corley's remains were found on farmland in 2000

A father struggling to come to terms with his son's fatal shooting 13 years ago has set up a bereavement group to help other parents.

The remains of Mark Corley, 23, from Grantham in Lincolnshire, were found on remote farmland near Darlington, County Durham, in December 2000.

The case against five men charged with murder was dropped when it emerged police had illegally recorded evidence.

Mr Corley's father Tony, from Leicestershire, said each day was hard.

Now living in Alvaston near Derby, Mr Corley said the bereavement group, called Understand, was for parents whose children had been murdered or "killed in tragic circumstances".

Hidden microphones

"I had no support for seven years and that makes me very angry," said Mr Corley.

"Every day is harder, it doesn't get any easier at all. This will help me, talking to people in similar circumstances."

A trial began at Nottingham Crown Court in 2002 which heard Mark Corley had been "executed by a brutal shooting".

Mark's father Tony Corley said he hoped his son's killers would one day be caught

But Mr Justice Newman discharged five men accused of his murder when the court was told Lincolnshire Police had installed hidden microphones in exercise yards outside cells at Sleaford and Grantham police stations.

Prisoners and their solicitors, who were not allowed to smoke in interview rooms, went out into the yards and their privileged conversations were recorded.

Mr Justice Newman said: "Flagrant breaches of the law occurred" and the recorded evidence could not be used.

Tony Corley said he still hoped his son's killers would be found.

"The people who did this to my son, hopefully they will, one day, be brought to justice and punished."

The group plans to meet once a month in Hinckley, Leicestershire.