CASE SUMMARY

At around 3:30pm on January 14th, 2008, Greater Manchester Police received a call from a distressed teenager that had returned home from school to find her mother – 34 year old Sarah Melia – stabbed to death at the foot of the stairs inside their family home in the town of Horwich.

A witness came forward to tell investigators they saw a man approaching the property that morning in a distinctive red coat, who was later spotted on local CCTV camera. The victim’s mother was one of many who believed the man in the footage to be the victim’s own brother – who later put on trial for murder a total of three times.