Man cleared of 1980 woods murder

Vincent Simpson, 61, of Camberley, Surrey, was on trial at the High Court in Edinburgh accused of strangling 20-year-old Elizabeth McCabe. Her naked body was found in Templeton Woods, Dundee, on February 26, 1980, the day before her 21st birthday.

But after seven weeks of evidence, the jury took less than three hours to return a not guilty verdict. Mr Simpson bowed his head as his fate was revealed.

Judge Lord Kinclaven told him: "Vincent Simpson, you have been acquitted by verdict of the jury. I can discharge you from the dock in relation to this indictment." Mr Simpson replied quietly: "Thank you very much."

Miss McCabe's mother, Anne McCabe, 67, said she did not want to make any comment as she left the court.

During the seven-week trial, the court heard that the remains of the young woman, from Lochee, Dundee, were found by two rabbit hunters who had taken their dogs into the woods. The men initially mistook the lifeless body, lying naked on the freezing winter's day, for a mannequin or a tailor's dummy.

Police who rushed to the scene soon feared - wrongly as it turned out - that they had a serial killer on their hands. Months earlier, the body of another woman, Carol Lannen, was discovered in the same woods.

Within the last three years, advances in DNA technology allowed police to re-examine a number of decades-old killings. Simpson was charged in connection with Miss McCabe's death in 2005.

During the trial, prosecutor Alex Prentice QC described the case as being like a "27-year-old jigsaw puzzle". The jury was told that a conviction depended on their accepting the DNA evidence against Simpson.

Forensics expert Dr Jonathan Whitaker said tests on the blue jumper found beside the body and a hair root found separately linked the nursery nurse to Simpson. But defence QC Mark Stewart said the police investigation into Miss McCabe's death was "fundamentally flawed", alleging they became blinkered, fixating on taxi drivers, and that all the evidence pointed to the possibility there was contamination of vital evidence.