Sometimes justice is swift, but other times the wheels can turn a little bit slower.

Take for example the murder of Yorkshire schoolgirl Elsie Frost in 1965, the 14-year-old attacked and stabbed as she walked through a railway tunnel.

The case happened to attract some media attention last year, 50 years after the fact, and as a result new information came to light.

Off the back of that a new investigation was launched by West Yorkshire Police, with the quotes below from Detective Superintendent Nick Wallen on Sky News:

“Since then we have received significant numbers of calls and emails from members of the public offering new information, and have generated new lines of inquiry which officers have been progressing ever since.

“Following those inquiries we have now arrested a 78-year-old man in the Berkshire area and will be interviewing him under caution to progress our investigation”…

“The response we have received from the public since launching the reinvestigation is a testament to their dedication and to the strength of feeling Elsie’s murder continues to generate in the local community in Wakefield.”

Pretty sure that bloke, if guilty, would have thought he had got away with murder. Some more history on the case:

Hundreds of people were questioned by police after Elsie’s body was found at the bottom of a flight of steps by a dog walker, but her killer evaded justice.

In 1966, Ian Bernard Spencer, then aged 33, was charged with her murder and cleared on the orders of the judge who heard the case at trial.

Given that we have such a backlog of unsolved cases here in SA I don’t see too many 50-year-old investigations leading to arrests, but at least it might make a few criminals shed a bead of sweat or two.

[source:skynews]