Jessie Earl: Coroner says family victims of 'miscarriage of justice'

Miss Earl's remains were found in dense undergrowth near Beachy Head nine years after she disappeared

The family of a woman found dead in 1989 were victims of "a serious miscarriage of justice", a coroner said.

The bones of Jessie Earl, 22, were found near Beachy Head, East Sussex, nine years after she disappeared.

An inquest at the time recorded an open verdict.

Sussex assistant coroner James Healy-Pratt told a fresh inquest a report which treated her death as suicide was "wrong and contrary to evidence".

On day two of the inquest into Miss Earl's death at Eastbourne Town Hall, Mr Healy-Pratt continued: "It [the detective report in 1980] had the result of making Jessie's death less of a priority for Sussex police because it was treated as suicide."

He said Jessie's family had "clearly been victims of a serious miscarriage of justice".

The High Court approved a new hearing in December, after years of campaigning by Miss Earl's parents who criticised the first police investigation as "woefully inadequate".

The force had treated Miss Earl's death as suspicious, but in 2000, after forensic, scene, witness and pathology inquiries, Sussex Police recorded her death as murder.

East Sussex assistant coroner James- Healy-Pratt told the hearing Jessie Earl's family were "clearly victims of a serious miscarriage of justice"

The hearing was told that all that was found along with Miss Earl's bones was a tightly-knotted brown bra, which experts at the time said could have been used to tie her up.

Giving evidence at the hearing the now-retired head of major crimes at Sussex Police, Emma Heaton, who reviewed the case in 2019, said: "I think she was a victim of crime.

"Everything points to her meeting her death up on those Downs. Whether it was someone known to her or not, I simply can't say."

On Tuesday the hearing was told original evidence, including the bra, had likely been destroyed due to the case not being considered a murder investigation in the first instance.

The inquest heard that since the bra went missing, in April 1989, DNA had been gathered from Miss Earl's parents and checked against "trophies" and other evidence collected by known killers including Peter Tobin and, more recently, David Fuller. No matches have yet been found.

The coroner is due to deliver his conclusions on 12 May.

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