A DIVORCED father of three has been jailed for life for the murder of 14-year-old Roy Tutill, whose abused and strangled body was discovered over 33 years ago.

Brian Lunn Field pleaded guilty to the murder at the Old Bailey on Thursday last week (Nov 15), bringing an end to the longest unsolved child murder inquiry in Surrey police history.

When Kingston Grammar schoolboy Roy Linzee Tutill vanished on the way back from school to his Leatherhead home on April 23, 1968, police officers at Staines took up the search to find him.

But after discovering his strangled and sexually assaulted body three days later in a copse near the entrance to the Cherkley Court estate in Leatherhead, officers launched Operation Wren, which was based at Staines, in a bid to find the killer.

And after 10,000 interviews, West Midlands-based farmhand Lunn Field was eventually brought to justice after forensic scientists at the police's National Crime Faculty investigating an old offence in the Grampian region linked him to the Tutill case and another offence in Surrey.

Following the breakthrough Tutills' blazer and school satchel were put through further modern forensic tests which found Lunn Field's DNA.

The life sentence was immediately welcomed by Staines police, who are still investigating his criminal activity.

Paying tribute to the officers that preceded him, Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Cook, who led the most recent investigation, said: "Brian Lunn Field is, and will remain, an extremely dangerous man.

"He has today admitted his guilt but the investigation into his activities will go on to determine the full extent of his criminal past. I therefore appeal to any person who has information about his criminal past to come forward so other possible victims may also see justice."

He added: "I find myself in a very rewarding position in that I was able to bring this matter to a conclusion.

"It gives me great relief to know that Brian Lunn Field will never be released and because of his age will surely die in prison. It does, however, fill me with some sadness that neither of Roy's parents are alive to see justice being done."

By.Abi Dornan