Hanratty was guilty, rules House of Lords

Genetic tests prove conclusively that James Hanratty carried out the "A6 Murder" for which he was hanged 40 years ago, the House of Lords ruled yesterday.

In a judgment that dooms the campaign to clear Hanratty's name, three law lords said the certainty of DNA evidence meant the Court of Appeal rightly dismissed an appeal against the conviction.

They refused leave for Michael Hanratty, the dead man's brother, who brought the appeal, to take his fight any further.

Hanratty was hanged on 4 April 1962 after being found guilty of murdering civil servant Michael Gregston, 36, and raping and maiming his mistress, Valerie Storie, 22, who was left for dead.

He was alleged to have surprised the lovers in a cornfield in Dorney Reach, Berkshire, before forcing them to drive to a lay-by at Dead Man's Hill, south of Bedford, and shooting them.

In the Appeal Court in May it was argued that the conviction that led to one of the most famous alleged miscarriages of justice, was "fatally flawed". Michael Mansfield QC claimed Hanratty, a 25-year-old petty thief, had been denied a fair trial by "extensive and inexcusable non-disclosure" by the police, and by "malpractice on a substantial scale" by the late Detective Superintendent Robert Acott, who led the investigation.

However, in the decision backed by the law lords, Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, said the DNA link with Hanratty, whose body was exhumed two years ago, had made the prosecution case even stronger.

Lord Woolf said there was no dispute that DNA from Hanratty was found on a fragment from the underwear of Ms Storie, who had identified Hanratty as her attacker.