03/07/96 - Sophie Hook murder trial jury hears fathers' son's confession
Independent

The jury in the Sophie Hook murder trial was told yesterday by the father of the accused man's father how his son confessed to him that he had murdered the girl.

Gerald Hughes revealed he had since cut off all contact with his son, Howard, because heknew Sophie's family and the confession had "shattered" him. Hughes, 31, of Colwyn Bay, North Wales, denies the double rape and murder of Sophie - abducted from a tent in her uncle's garden in Llandudno last July.

But Chester Crown Court was told headmitted the murder to his father when he visited him at the police station after several days of questioning. He said his son had been a disappointment and had been in trouble with the police as a teenager.

The case continues today.