HAMILTON, Bermuda - The wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair will travel to Bermuda next month to represent the family of a Belleville, Ont., teenager whose rape and killing remains unsolved after more than a decade, a lawyer said Wednesday.
Cherie Booth has received approval from the British Atlantic territory's Supreme Court to act as legal counsel for the family of Rebecca Middleton during an April 16-17 hearing, said Kelvin Hastings-Smith, the lawyer for the Middletons in Bermuda.
"All the hurdles are cleared and we are expecting her in shortly before the case starts," he said.
Booth has previously offered legal advice to the family.
During the upcoming hearing, the court will decide whether prosecutors should re-examine the evidence in the case. The family sought the judicial review after Bermuda's top government prosecutor, Vinette Graham-Allen, decided last year not to reinvestigate the killing.
Middleton was 17 when her nude body was found in a street in the popular tourist island St. George, in Bermuda's northeast, in July 1996. She had been stabbed to death.
Justis Raham Smith was acquitted in 1998 of killing Middleton, while Kirk Orlando Mundy pleaded guilty to accessory to murder in 1996 and received a five-year prison sentence.
