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Was Brinnington arson murder mistaken identity?

Peter Devine
31/10/2007

A WOMAN has claimed a fatal arson attack on a woman in Brinnington was the result of mistaken identity.

Jaine Duffy made the claim at the opening of an industrial tribunal being held in Manchester in which she alleges discrimination by her employer, Stockport Council.

Mrs Duffy, a clerical assistant, claimed she received a series of telephone calls threatening to burn her house down – only three weeks before an arson attack claimed the life of Julie Ann Duffy, of Essex Road, on September 28 last year - a crime for which no-one has ever been convicted.

Following that fatal arson, Jaine claims police advised her and her family to move house as a precaution.

Mrs Duffy said the messages, which she recorded, included the words: ‘Why do you always have to push it, why can’t you leave it? You’re an evil bitch. Stop pushing it. I know your daughter’s name and who she is and I will come round and rape her, and I will smash your house up and burn it down.’

Mrs Duffy also claimed police, who she called to her home following these messages, said they had no doubt that these calls were connected to her grievance (with Stockport Council).

"I stayed awake all night with my daughter, too terrified to go to bed and I was too terrified to sleep," she recalled.

Following Julie Ann Duffy’s murder, Mrs Duffy and her family were questioned by murder squad detectives.

She told the hearing they "advised me and my family to move out of our home. And even when we returned we didn’t feel safe ... my husband (Paul) had to block the letterbox before we went to bed."

The tribunal heard Mrs Duffy allege that supporting her husband through two failed employment tribunal cases - one for bullying and one for disability discrimination - had made her a "target" and Council management had been "trawling for dirt to get her sacked".

Representatives of Stockport Council are expected to give evidence at the tribunal later this week - Proceeding

Police, who offered a £20,000 reward leading to the arrest of the person responsible for the fatal arson last year, are still no nearer finding who carried out the attack.

Speaking to the Stockport Express, Detective Superintendent Ian Foster of the GMP major incident team, which investigated Julie Duffy’s death, said they received many pieces of information about the arson and Jaine was interviewed by detectives at an early stage.

He said that many rumours had circulated following Julie Ann Duffy’s murder but officers had found no link and this line of inquiry was ceased.

" We did look at it and from our enquiries there was nothing to indicate that these two incidents, involving her (Jaine Duffy's) dispute with her employers and Julie Ann Duffy's death, are linked at all. As far as we are concerned they are two completely different incidents.

"We never got to a stage where we thought it was a credible," Det Supt Foster said.

He added that mistaken identity was one of the possibilities considered during the investigation but no evidence was found to support the theory.

He added: "It was always a possibility but it was far from ever being a probability. It was looked at but when we looked at her circumstances there was nothing to link them."

The tribunal is expected to last four days.