26/04/2006

Crimewatch callers urged to contact police

Police have appealed for the two people who called into last night's BBC's Crimewatch UK programme in connection with the murder of Coleraine pensioner Norman Moffat to get in touch.

Mr Moffat, 73, was fatally stabbed at the junction of Railway Road and Circular Road in Coleraine as he made his way home from a local newsagents at around 6.30am on January 26, 2001.

The incident was captured on CCTV and new technology enabled the images to be enhanced in order for them to be used on last nights television programme along with a reconstruction of the events surrounding the stabbing.

During the screening, police revealed that they believed that Mr Moffat had been the victim of mistaken identity and that the murderer may have been targeting a local paedophile.

Detectives have since urged the two people who called the show, naming the same suspect to call them back.

Speaking on Crimewatch Detective Chief Inspector Nigel Kyle said that he believed the murder to have been “an horrendous mistake” and that the killer “got the wrong man.”

He added that the community had been outraged that a paedophile was living in their midst and felt that he had "got away with it".

DCI Kyle continued by saying that a number of people who were picked up on CCTV footage at the time of the murder still hadn't come forward and they especially want to hear from a man with a rucksack, a man on a bike, a lorry driver and two men standing at a phone box.

Anyone with any information relating to the murder should contact police on 0845 600 8000, or anonymously on the Crimestoppers number on 0800 555 111.

(EF/GB)

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