David 'Les' Ross: The unsolved Corby murder with a dead suspect

No-one has ever been convicted in connection with David 'Les' Ross's murder

Just weeks after David Ross realised his dream of owning a nightclub, he was beaten to death in a hotel room. Ten years on, nobody has been charged and one of the prime suspects has died. His family and friends ask whether justice will ever be served.

David Ross was a "massive character" and a familiar face to those who enjoyed nights out in the Northamptonshire town of Corby.

A doorman and a taxi driver, his love of snooker earned him the nickname "Les" after the famous player Les Dodd.

"Les meant the world to me," said Andrew Lucas, who was a teenager when he worked with Mr Ross. "He took me under his wing when I started on the door and he turned me from a young boy into a man.

"I really was having the time of my life, to be honest, with him."

Running his own nightclub had been Mr Ross's lifelong goal, according to his younger brother, Niall.

Niall Ross remembers him as an outgoing character who was "not really big on education or anything like that, [he] just wanted to get his head down, get work, get some money and build a future for himself".

"His goal was always to run his own nightclub - it was always going to be a natural progression," he said.

Mr Ross was a partner at the Rubix nightclub in Corby

The opportunity arose in late 2012, when he became a partner at the Rubix nightclub.

Niall told how within weeks of becoming a partner, Mr Ross's house was ransacked in a burglary and his dog was "practically kicked to death".

With his house made uninhabitable, Mr Ross moved into a hotel room at the town's Village Inn Express.

On 17 December, his was found dead in his room, aged 39.

Discovered in boxer shorts and a white vest, his body showed injuries to the face, chest and arms.

Andrew Lucas said he fell to the floor when his friend's body was brought out of the hotel

On the night of his death, Mr Ross had popped over to the Village Inn nightclub, where his security company controlled the door, to check on his staff. Mr Lucas was checking the toilets at the time and so missed Mr Ross's visit.

"I just remember the image of the back of his car driving away - I never got to see him. That still sits on me quite heavy now."

The next time he saw him was the moment Mr Ross's body was being brought out of the hotel.

"That was just devastating," Mr Lucas said. "I just fell to the floor crying... I can't really put into words how bad that moment was."

Niall was at his son's nativity play when he learned his brother was dead.

At first, he thought the death was health-related.

"He'd been working pretty much 24/7 for a very long time... He was heavy-set so at that time I thought, 'Oh, my God, he's had a heart attack'."

He was shocked to learn his brother had been killed.

"At the time I was in shock because, obviously for that to have happened to him, the person or persons responsible would've been pretty heavy set themselves because, one-on-one, he was a tough guy.

"He wasn't going to go down without a fight," he said.

Mr Ross was staying at the Village Inn Express Hotel after damage was caused to his home

Police have said they believed Mr Ross had been intimidated by organised criminals intent on taking over his share of the Rubix.

His close friend Mick Willey said Mr Ross "didn't drive around in flash cars, he didn't have loads of money, so if he was involved in criminality he was extremely bad at it".

Mr Willey said locals were "excited" about the idea of a nightclub in Corby, but added: "I think that attracted a lot of attention, and some attention that wasn't wanted.

"Les actually spoke to me and told me face-to-face that he'd been threatened by people that wanted in.

"At one point he'd been offered money, which he refused. He'd got a knock on his front door and an individual was there telling him 'take this, I want in on the nightclub' and he refused it."

Mick Willey said the new nightclub "attracted a lot of attention, and some attention that wasn't wanted"

Mr Willey personally believes that whoever went to the hotel room "went there to give Les another warning and it went wrong".

"There's no evidence to say that, the police haven't said that as far as I know - but in my mind I can't see how it should escalate [to that]. What would they get out of killing him? I think it was just upping the stakes."

For Niall, it was a world away from anything he had known.

"You're sat there going 'this is like a surreal Bourne Identity kind of film'. There's all these big players... this doesn't happen in a small district town of Corby."

One of the main suspects was arrested twice on suspicion of Mr Ross's murder but later died in a road traffic collision.

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The suspect's death leaves one line of inquiry closed and 10 years on, Niall still struggles with so many questions unanswered.

"He's in possibly one of the smallest hotels in the UK. It's got CCTV inside and outside.

"He's been taken down in his room and whatever's happened in that room there's obviously been a commotion of some description and, judging by the size of the rooms and judging by the size of David, if he's been put up for a fight there's going to be a hell of a noise in that room.

"So immediately my head's thinking there's people available. There's people in other rooms. They're all occupied, someone's got to know something. And for whatever reason nothing has come out of that.

"There's cars been allegedly in the area. There's people that potentially are in the area.

"For him to have opened the door first and foremost, because there's no forced entry, he must have known the person.

"If he is there because he is in fear for his wellbeing or his life, he's not going open a door to somebody that he doesn't know. So he knows the person [and then] that person or persons have then committed a crime against him and left him for dead.

"And, top and bottom, that's all we know."

Last year, Mr Ross's old friends had an anniversary at the cemetery, taking down his favourite drinks which according to Andrew included a "concoction" of the alcopop WKD.

Andrew Lucas said he "lost" himself after his friend died

"All of us had never got over what happened and we'll always hold that connection together," said Mr Lucas.

"There isn't a day that I don't think back about Les and the times we had. They were the best days of my life.

"After Les died I lost myself for a long time. I used to live in the past and try to rekindle how it was for me and him and it was never the same."

Niall said every year his family hold a commemorative event for David, who would be 50 years old next year.

"I think it's absolutely killed my mum. I think she's lost. She's been lost for 10 years.

"She tries in her own way to be cheerful and put a smile on her face, but every time I see her it breaks my heart. When she visits the crematorium her husband's lying there and her eldest son is lying there and she's broken."

Police said there has "never been enough evidence to charge anyone in connection with the case"

Northamptonshire Police has urged anybody with information about the case to come forward.

Det Ch Insp Adam Pendlebury, said: "There could have been a lot of reasons why people felt they could not speak to us at the time of David's death. But allegiances and loyalties can change in a decade and we are convinced that someone out there knows who killed him.

"Multiple lines of inquiry have been followed since David's death resulting in the arrests of a number of people.

"Sadly, there has never been enough evidence to charge anyone in connection with the case. However, this remains a live investigation and any new information which points to those responsible will be followed up."

Asked what he wanted to happen now, Niall responded: "I think we said from day one [we want] some kind of justice for what's happened to David."

He said his family simply wanted to set aside endless speculation and to be able to say, once and for all, "look, this is what happened".