Murder suspect is arrested in woods

A murder suspect on the run for nearly a month after the killing of a fellow former miner was arrested yesterday when armed police surrounded his forest hideaway.

A murder suspect on the run for nearly a month after the killing of a fellow former miner was arrested yesterday when armed police surrounded his forest hideaway.

Robert Boyer, 42, looked "gaunt and dishevelled" after hiding in a Nottinghamshire woodland and surviving on tinned food and bottled water in a cover concealed with leaves and branches.

The former miner had evaded police for up to a month after he was named as the prime suspect for the murder of Keith Frogson, 62, a member of the National Union of Mineworkers, who was found dead on the doorstep of his home last month.

Officers who had been leading a force of 620 police searching 1.5 square miles of woodland for suspects in two unrelated murders, said Mr Boyer had been arrested after he returned to his "well-constructed" hide-out in the early hours.

Police said a row took place between Mr Boyer and Mr Frogson, who had three children, on the 20th anniversary of the 1984 miners strike last month. The two men had both been miners during the 1984 coal strike and Mr Boyer, a member of the breakaway Union of Democratic Mineworkers, had been one of those who had crossed picket lines to break the strike action.