Man who covered up parents' murder released from prison after less than two years

A man who covered up his parents' murder has been released from prison after less than two years. Mark Newall may now inherit his share of their fortune, believed to be worth several million pounds.

Newall was sentenced to six years in August 1994 for helping his brother Roderick conceal the murders, and dispose of the bodies, of Nicholas Newall, 56, and his wife Elizabeth, 46, after a birthday night out seven years earlier.

Former Detective Inspector Graham Nimmo, who worked on the inquiry for two years before retiring in 1990 from the States of Jersey Police CID, said: "The investigation took longer than the time he has served. It was a very difficult, long and protracted inquiry. It was largely down to him, all those lies he told, lie after lie, that the investigation was dragged out."

Roderick Newall, a former army officer, is still in La Moye prison in Jersey after being given a life sentence for beating his parents to death with a martial arts rice flail during a drunken argument. The brothers buried the blood-soaked bodies in a shallow grave in woods on the north of the island and cleared all traces of the crime from the family home at St Brelade's Bay. PA