Detectives are to investigate whether a Sussex man could have raped and murdered a barmaid 30 years ago.

Mr Hodgson walked free from prison on Wednesday after spending 27 years behind bars for the murder of part-time barmaid Teresa De Simone in Southampton in 1979.

Miss De Simone, 22, who also worked as a gas board clerk, was sexually assaulted and strangled to death behind a pub.

Mr Hodgson, 57, was sentenced to life in prison in 1982 but his conviction was quashed at the Court of Appeal in London after new DNA evidence revealed he could not have been the killer.

Now police are to look into whether a man who was heading for Brighton at the time of the attack could be the killer.

Librarian Tim Baber, who was in Southampton on the night of the murder, saw a man at Southampton railway station who was trying to get a train to Brighton.

Mr Baber, from Hampshire, made a statement to Hampshire police at the time which will now be part of a new investigation into the crime.

He said the man looked like a young bank manager but that his behaviour caused him "some concern".

Mr Baber said: "Whether he was the killer I have no idea but I didn't like the cut of his jib.

"He was trying to get a train to Brighton at midnight. There were none. Therefore he had five hours clear until the next train at 5am. The station is only about 600 yards from the pub."

Mr Baber said he recalls hearing a few days after the killing in Southampton that a young woman had been attacked in the Brighton area.

He said that he had never forgotten seeing the man, who was smartly dressed and wearing an earring. He said: "It is a loose end."

A spokesman for Hampshire police said all statements taken at the time would be looked at again as part of the fresh investigation.