December 1, 2000 12:26: The case of a young Wallington woman who was murdered while at university in 1969 has been closed for good by police.

This week the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to pursue a murder charge against a man accused of the killing of Lesley McMurray, who was 21.

The biology student, who was from Wallington and used to return there to stay with an aunt when her parents moved to Bahrain, disappeared from Southampton University in June 1969. Nine months later her remains were found in a shallow grave she was murdered as she walked to her halls of residence.

Her former boyfriend, and now MP for Aldershot, Gerald Howarth, told the Comet he was saddened and disappointed. He said when Lesley went missing friends and family were left wondering if she had been abducted or had suffered a breakdown and disappeared.

During that time when I used to come up to London I would find myself looking for her on the tube, he said.

He said her two sisters, who have since moved from the area, were battered by the whole ordeal and did not wish to speak to the press.

On Monday Malcolm Fletcher, 51, was due to stand trial for Lesleys murder at Nottingham Crown Court, following the re-opening of the case 18 months ago. But at the last moment the CPS decided not to proceed because of insufficient evidence.

Fletcher was convicted in 1973 of the manslaughter of his six-year-old step-niece and was committed to Rampton secure psychiatric hospital, where he married a woman also serving for child murder.

The liaison led to fresh information coming to light and police are believed to have interviewed him about the Lesley McMurray murder.

In the end he was convicted of unrelated sex offences, put on the sex offenders register for life and sent back to jail without limit.

By.Paula Dear