TWENTY years ago a group of birdwatchers set off from Sussex on a day trip to Kent.

decades later two of that party could hold vital information about an unsolved murder.

One woman on that innocent outing spoke for the first time today about what could be the last sighting of the woman victim, who has never been identified, alive.

She may also have seen the man who killed her.

The potential witness, a pensioner from Brighton, kept silent, believing police would not be interested in what she had to say, until she saw a new appeal for information on this week's BBC Crimewatch programme.

Now detectives believe the information she has about that 1979 visit to woods in Bedgebury could be vital.

The woman, in her 70s, contacted police as soon as she saw an artist's impression of the victim, who died after suffering a severe beating.

She said: "I've lived with this for years and it is such a relief now to tell people about it. I was so foolish not to tell the police at the time.

"After seeing the programme I'm convinced the person I saw that day was the same woman in the artist's impression shown on television."

She says that while birdwatching she and another RSPB member, believed to be from Lewes, split away from the main group.

They then saw a woman limping away from a man she describes as well dressed, and then disappear from view.

The elderly witness said: "There then followed a horrendous and continuous thudding noise and what sounded like a scream."

Det Sgt Russell Nyman, who is investigating the incident, said: "This is the best we have had so far. I will be talking in more detail with her later this week and we think she will be able to provide us with some very useful information."

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