Prostitutes' help sought over killing

DETECTIVES hunting the killer of Julie Finley, 23, who was strangled and dumped naked in a field near Skelmersdale at the weekend, are appealing to Liverpool's prostitutes for help.

Ms Finley, a drug addict, was associated with the city's prostitutes and may also have worked as one. She had been living in the Huskisson Street area, a red light district just outside Liverpool city centre.

Detective Chief Inspector Francis Youell said yesterday: 'There are always people about who frighten these girls for various reasons, and the girls learn to be streetwise and aware of these people and won't get in a car with them.

'These are the people I want to hear about. My officers are in the area now, but I am not interested in what the girls are doing there - that's not my problem. It is a question of trust.

'They have got to be prepared to accept that the police are not in the business of stopping them performing their work - we are out to protect them from any similar attacks.'

Meanwhile, a detective from Merseyside went to Leicester yesterday to attend a meeting of officers investigating links between the murders of five women in the Midlands and South Yorkshire in the past eight months.

A connection with Ms Finley's murder has not been ruled out, although police said that there was nothing to connect the case as yet.