Man charged in 32-year murder probe

Detectives investigating the 32-year-old mystery of a young woman's death today charged a man with murder.

Sally McGrath, 22, was found naked in a shallow grave in woodland near Peterborough in March 1980 after vanishing in July 1979.

Despite what police describe as Cambridgeshire's biggest pre-Soham murder investigation the killer was never found.

Cambridgeshire Police re-opened inquiries following a cold case review last year.

Today Paul Barry Taylor, 59, originally from Peterborough and now living in Fareham, Hampshire, was charged with the murder.

He will appear at Peterborough Magistrates Court tomorrow.

The twice-married grandfather was originally arrested last December and was this afternoon charged after answering bail at a police station in Cambridgeshire.

Taylor also faces three counts of rape, one of serious sexual assault and one of indecent assault against three different women.

One of the rape charges relates to an attack a month before Miss McGrath's disappearance on a woman in Castor Hanglands, the place where the body was found.

Taylor, who worked as builder in the city where he lived with his wife and two children, later moved to Hampshire where he re-married and ran a fish and chip shop.

Miss McGrath was last seen alive at about 3pm on July 11 1979 at the Bull Hotel in Westgate, Peterborough, in the company of a man.

Her body, naked except for a pair of boots, was found by a gamekeeper on March 1 1980, partially buried in Wild Boar Spinney, at Castor Hanglands, to the west of Peterborough.

Her body was badly decomposed and police at the time could not recover any forensic evidence.

A post-mortem revealed she had died from a "blunt force" injury to her head.

Miss McGrath had been living with her parents and brother in Towler Street, Peterborough, when she vanished.

Her parents, both in their 80s and described as frail, have asked not to be approached.

However, Miss McGrath's mother, Christina McGrath, welcomed the re-opening of the case. The couple were said to be relieved that progress had been made so long after their daughter's death.

Source: PA