Pub staff in Huby have told how murdered man David Williamson spent his last hours having a pleasant drink at his local.

Mr Williamson, from Sutton-on-the-Forest, near Easingwold, was found on a roadside path hours after leaving a party at the Star Inn in Huby in the early hours of Monday last week.

The 57-year-old had suffered a fractured skull and died later in hospital. Yesterday police confirmed that they were looking for a murderer.

Lynn Brooks, landlady of the Star Inn, and her son, Stuart, said regulars had been shocked to hear that his death was violent.

"People thought he that he had got ill because he was epileptic at first," she said.

She said Mr Williamson had often come in for a drink on his own, usually on a Saturday afternoon, and it was the first Sunday they had known him to come in.

The party was being held to say goodbye to outgoing landlord Charles Adams.

Stuart said: "I spoke to him that night and he was asking me if I had got a job and I said I was looking for a job."

Lynn said: "We didn't know him that well, but he was pleasant when he was talking to you."

They said they had found out about Mr Williamson's death when CID officers knocked on the door the next day. Police officers had been in and out of the pub ever since.

Detectives yesterday appealed to villagers in Huby and Sutton-on-the-Forest to "search their minds and search their consciences" to help them catch Mr Williamson's killer.

Updated: 10:51 Friday, April 06, 2001