The family of a Belleville, Ont. teen whose murder in Bermuda more than 10 years ago still remains a mystery, is about to get some help from British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife.
Cherie Booth has received permission from the British Atlantic territory's Supreme Court to act as legal counsel for Rebecca Middleton's family.
The 17-year-old was found in the street on the island of St. George in July 1996, bruised, naked and barely alive. She had been raped and stabbed dozens of times, and died before paramedics arrived on the scene.
Kevin Hastings-Smith, the family's lawyer in Bermuda, confirmed that Booth has been granted permission to represent the family during a judicial review in April. The review was requested after Bermuda's top prosecutor decided last year not to reinvestigate Middleton's death.
Booth has offered legal advice to the family in the past.
In 1996, Kirk Orlando Mundy pleaded guilty to accessory to murder in relation to Middleton's death, and was handed a five-year sentence.
Justis Raham Smith was acquitted in 1998 of Middleton's murder.
Vinette Graham-Allen, director of Bermuda's Department of Public Prosecutions, said last year that the pair could have been charged with sexual assault in 1996, but the charges wouldn't stand now.
Graham-Allen has argued that Middleton was sexually assaulted by Mundy, who alleged the sex was consensual.
Mundy was not charged with sexual assault last year because the evidence had already been used in his prosecution on accessory to murder. A suspect cannot be punished twice for a crime arising from the same evidence, Graham-Allen said at the time.
Smith wasn't charged because he had already been acquitted in the earlier case -- a decision that was reviewed and upheld by two appellant courts.
With files from The Canadian Press
