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A fresh inquest into the suspected murder of an eight-year-old girl is to take place - more than 43 years after she died.

Helen Bailey, known as "Little Girl Blue", disappeared wearing blue clothing and was found dead in woodland near her Birmingham home in August 1975.

A jury at an inquest in March the following year returned an open verdict after hearing evidence she may have died as a result of an "accident or practical joke gone wrong".

But the original verdict was quashed and a fresh inquest ordered by High Court judges on Wednesday after a request by West Midlands Police, following a cold case review.

Head of West Midlands Police Force CID, Chief Superintendent Mark Payne, said: “West Midlands Police has been running a cold case review into the death of Helen Bailey.

"New evidence generated through our investigation was put to the High Court and a judge has now quashed the original inquest verdict of accidental death and ordered a fresh inquest.

“We look forward to contributing towards the new inquest, getting to the bottom of exactly what happened, and getting justice for the family of Helen Bailey."

Lord Justice Hickinbottom, sitting with Mrs Justice Whipple, confirmed there was new evidence which justified another inquest.

The judge said: "In all of the circumstances of this case, I am persuaded that the interests of justice do make a further inquest desirable.

"In my view, the emergence of this new evidence may well lead to the conclusion that the truth of how Helen met her death was not revealed at the first inquest."

The judge told the court Helen was last seen leaving her home, in the Perry Barr area of Birmingham, to play outside at about 3.30pm on Sunday August 10 1975.

When she did not return, her mother alerted police and her body was found the following morning in an area of dense woodland in the Booth Farm area.

She had a cut to her throat, which a post-mortem examination at the time identified as the cause of her death.

But the pathologist who carried it out found that there were no signs of a struggle and the circumstances of Helen's death "lacked the essential hallmarks of a homicidal attack".

He concluded her death may have been the result of an "accident or practical joke gone wrong".

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However, the investigation into her death was reopened in 2014 and a pathologist who reviewed the case concluded Helen had been strangled before her throat was cut in a "clear case of homicide".

The judge said police investigated a "confession" made by one suspect in 1979, which was "consistent" with the findings of the pathologist in 2014, but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to prosecute him.

West Midlands Police then asked the Coroner for Birmingham and Solihull Louise Hunt to seek permission from the High Court to overturn the 1976 inquest verdict.