Parents win police apology

A lawyer representing the parents of three teenaged murder victims who were at first thought to have died of solvent abuse yesterday said the families had been given an "unequivocal apology" by the police force involved. Clare Routledge was speaking after the parents of Thomas Kelly, 18, David Hanson, 15, and David Grieff, 15, had met a Police Complaints Authority member and senior Northumbria Police officers for talks on the handling of the investigation into the deaths. The teenagers' bodies were found in burnt-out warehouses in the Monkwearmouth area of Sunderland in 1993 and 1994, with cans of lighter fuel and glue near by.

Northumbria Police said at the time that they had died as a result of solvent or drug abuse. It was eight months before the case was reviewed - and it emerged that all three had been strangled. Their killer, Stephen Grieveson, was later jailed for life.