As Val Earl clutches the paperwork proving her marathon fight for justice is over, her mind returns to a day long ago, and a photo of a stroll along a beach with her daughter Jessie.
‘Today that day at the seaside is just a distant memory – although one that I can’t forget. Because a week later, Jessie went missing,’ remembers Val, now 90, from Eltham, south London. ‘There was no further trace of her for a decade.’
Now, over 40 years after that last photo of Jessie, Val and her husband John, 94, have finally achieved justice for their daughter, who they’ve always believed was murdered.
‘My last day with Jessie was at Margate in May 1980,’ Val recalls. ‘We paddled in the waves, ate chips, visited the arcades,…
