THE family of a murdered student have blamed police for destroying evidence that could have linked her death to a prolific serial killer.

Jessie Earl’s body was found in undergrowth at Beachy Head near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in 1989, nine years after she vanished from her nearby bedsit.

A detective who worked on the original investigation, said she believed Jessie, who was 22 when she was killed, had her wrists bound with her own bra.

The only item of clothing found with her bones was her bra, which was used to tie her to a tree, a new inquest at Eastbourne Town Hall heard.

The Earl family had hoped DNA testing could link the bra to Scottish serial killer and sex offender Peter Tobin.

The bra was routinely destroyed following a police investigation, which failed to recognise her death as murder.

Jessie’s parents Valerie and John, now both in their 90s, won the right to a second inquest in December 2021 after describing the original police investigation was as woefully inadequate.

Mrs Earl told the inquest: “I was surprised at how little we were told. I think I believed at the time that was how police worked.

“I was a little naive and I felt I couldn’t complain. I remember I had very, strong memories of wondering if I could have the bra.

“They showed it to me, and I thought, have I got the courage to ask if I could have it so I could put it with her other things.

“I thought they would need it for evidence.”

Jessie described meeting a middle-aged Scottish man on the Downs at Beachy Head to her mother.

Tobin was living nearby in Brighton when Jessie Earl disappeared.

She put off going back to Eastbourne after a visit to her family in London to avoid the man who she feared may show up at her bedsit in the south coast town.

Retired Sussex Police detective sergeant Anne Capon said the man remains a person of interest.

She told the inquest: “One person was interviewed under caution who knew Jessie. He came forward himself in 1980.

“It was the correct man. He was interviewed and again in 1989. In 2000, he was interviewed under caution.

“He remains a person of interest.”

Ms Capon told the inquest that she still believed what she had told the first 1989 inquest: “My opinion was she has been murdered.”

Stephen Kamlish QC said criticism of the police is inevitable and called for police documents to be released to the family.

He said: “The fact the Chief Constable has not provided contemporaneous documents has caused difficulty.

“The family is entitled to know the extent the police did or did not carry out inquiries.

“It is a fact the first investigation is accepted to be woefully inadequate.”

Coroner James Healy-Pratt said he agreed the family have been a victim of a “substantial injustice”.