In an exclusive interview, widow Jackie Leeming tells how her heartache continues today - five years after her husband died in an unsolved murder

Geoffrey Leeming was brutally stabbed to death in the garage of his home in Linley Avenue, Haxby, on the evening of October 9, 1996, while his wife Jackie was inside watching Coronation Street.

A major police investigation eventually resulted in Jackie, her daughter Jayne and son Stephen being charged with conspiracy to murder.

But the case was thrown out in 1998 by York Magistrates, who said the charges were brought on suspicions only, with no real evidence.

There have been no major breakthroughs in the police investigation since then.

And Mrs Leeming, speaking exclusively to the Evening Press today on the fifth anniversary of his murder, says she wonders if detectives have given up hope of ever finding her husband's killer.

But she also says a day never passes by without her thinking of Geoffrey, or without wondering who could have been responsible for such a "horrendous" act.

She says she has continued making her own inquiries in a bid to find a fresh lead, and will never give up on trying to find her husband's killer.

"I have been going round talking to people and asking things," she says. "Somebody somewhere has got to know something.

"I find it hard to believe it was five years ago. I don't know where the time has gone.

"But I cannot move on. I am in a time capsule. It doesn't go away. It was all so horrendous. How do you put something like that aside?

"I am just full of hatred and revenge. I just cannot see who has done that to Geoffrey."

Mrs Leeming claims that she is still waiting to be given a copy of Geoffrey's death certificate, and that while some of her husband's possessions have been returned to her, others have not.

And she says she has never been given a full list of the items seized by police,

despite several requests in writing.

But York Coroner Donald Coverdale said the death certificate had been available to Mrs Leeming at the York Registrar's office since the inquest into Mr Leeming's death had been adjourned some years ago.

Superintendent John Lacy, of York police, who was head of York CID and senior investigation officer at the time of the murder investigation, said today that a complaint from Mrs Leeming about her husband's items had been made to the Police Complaints Authority, and had been fully and independently investigated.

He said it was essential that certain items were retained in case further forensic analysis could be carried out later.

He said he was hopeful that future advances in forensic techniques, for example in DNA analysis, could still lead to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Mr Leeming's murder.

"The inquiry does continue after five years and is under periodic review all the time," he said. "I have been a senior detective since 1989, and this is the only case of its kind which has not resulted in a conviction in court."

Updated: 11:27 Tuesday, October 09, 2001