JULY 18: JUSTICE for the family of Zoe Evans is a step closer as the Wiltshire Times campaign reached the House of Commons.

Home Secretary David Blunkett was in parliament when west Wiltshire MP Dr Andrew Murrison handed the petition with almost 1,000 signatures to the speaker on Tuesday.

Dr Murrison said the issue was one of great poignancy and urged the Home Secretary to ensure minimum sentences are set without any further delays with Zoe's case considered exped-itiously.

It has been a tortuous wait for Zoe's family. They have been waiting five years for a tariff to be set for killer Miles Evans who paraded himself as a concerned stepfather despite knowing he had murdered nine-year-old Zoe and buried her body on a hill near their Warminster home in 1997.

Dr Murrison said the Justice for Zoe campaign had touched him and highlighted the need for swift reform.

"It is a touching case. This is a very poignant issue and the family have suffered terribly," he said.

"I hope the system will be able to give them some sort of peace of mind in the near future.

"The Home Secretary has not been setting tariffs for some time and they will not be set until the end of the year. There will then be upwards of 500 cases to be heard.

"My worry is that families will be looking forward to the end of the year to hear about tariffs and they will be waiting a great deal longer. We need to keep up the pressure.

"I am very pleased and grateful to the Wiltshire Times for running this campaign."

Zoe's grandmother Ann Hamilton, who lives in Trowbridge, wept as the petition was handed over to Dr Murrison on Friday and said she is praying for an end to the family's suffering.

"Sometimes I think I am never going to stop crying," she said.

"I am really grateful to all the people who signed the petition. Andrew Murrison and the Wiltshire Times have been a great help. I am just hoping for a response now. I want this to go all the way to Tony Blair."

The state of limbo with tariffs began when law lords ruled the tariff-setting powers of the Home Secretary as incompatible with the European guidelines.

A Home Office spokesman said outline proposals designed to help judges set murderers' tariffs were included as part of the latest Criminal Justice Bill.

He said: "We are aware this petition has been presented in Parliament."

Dear David Blunkett,

Schoolgirl Zoe Evans was murdered by her stepfather Miles Evans in 1997.

For Wiltshire residents it was one of the most emotive crimes of a generation, with hundreds of people helping police search for the nine-year-old in a painstaking six-week operation.

Her body was found in a badger sett less than a mile from her home in the garrison town of Warminster.

A year later Private Evans, a soldier, was found guilty of her murder and sentenced to life at Bristol Crown Court.

For Zoe's family, her mother Paula and her grandmother Ann, it has been a tortuous rollercoaster.

More than five years after the jury's verdict Miles Evans is languishing in jail without a minimum tariff set.

The family contacted us, desperate at their ongoing torment, and we decided to launch the Justice for Zoe campaign.

It is simply not fair for Zoe's family to have to wait any longer to find out how long her killer can expect behind bars.

It is not their fault the tariff system is going through a transition. It is not their fault the appeal process took so long.

Why should they be made to wait any longer?

Zoe's is not the only family facing this unbearable limbo. Surely something can be done to help the handful of families who have been waiting an unjustifiably long time to achieve the closure they so desperately need.

We hope you will consider the views of our readers and bring this cruelly unfair wait to an end.

Yours sincerely,

Toby Granville

Editor, Wiltshire Times