A FARMER told today how he accidentally found Mark Hobson's knife while walking through his field - two months after the killer's dramatic arrest.

In an amazing turn of events, father-of-two David Shedden discovered the weapon which Hobson took from the Strensall home of elderly couple James and Joan Britton after killing them with a different knife.

He found it on top of ploughed land off the Al9, near Shipton-by-Beningborough.

It is believed Hobson may have buried the bread knife in the soil, but it was unearthed when Mr Shedden cultivated the land with his tractor weeks later.

Ironically, the 60-year-old, who is a pig farmer and crop grower at Shipton Grange Farm, was on holiday in Turkey when Hobson was arrested opposite his field, off the A19, behind Oakdale Upholstery.

"I was looking down at the ground to check my crops when I saw the knife glistening," he said.

"I knew I better not pick it up because of what happened so I just called the police.

"He (Hobson) must have buried the knife otherwise the police would have found it during their fingertip search of the field. The machinery I use to cultivate the land must have brought it back to the surface.

"It's probably very lucky that it came to light."

A strip of police tape used to cordon off the area during the original search for a murder weapon is still stuck to Mr Shedden's hedge, more than seven months after one of the country's biggest manhunts.

"My daughter rang my wife and I when we were in Turkey to tell us she had seen the farm on telly when they found him," Mr Shedden said.

"I thought finding the knife was such a long shot at the time because we get all sorts thrown into the field."

Updated: 10:05 Wednesday, April 20, 2005