A MAN has today been found guilty of murdering a 77-year-old Hampshire grandmother after standing trial for a second time accused of the brutal killing.

Jurors took three hours to convict Matthew Hamlen of bludgeoning Georgina Edmonds to death with a rolling pin eight years ago. He now faces life behind bars.

It was the second time 37-year-old Hamlen had stood trial at Winchester Crown Court accused of the killing in January 2008.

He was acquitted unanimously by a jury on January 20, 2012 but sensational new DNA evidence led to him being rearrested in 2014.

In a rare move, he was tried again under double jeopardy rules following a change in the law which allows people to be tried more than once for murder if significant new evidence is found.

It is the first case of its kind in Hampshire and now forms the seventh in the UK. All previous double jeopardy cases ended with guilty verdicts.

Hampshire police took the matter to the Court of Appeal in London after scientists discovered a DNA profile with a match probability of 26 million-to-one that it wasn't Hamlen's.

The evidence was found from a taping of Mrs Edmonds' blouse, in a small section that wasn't covered in blood.

Basic and then advanced DNA techniques were used to retrieve the sample which was strong enough to bring the case back to court and make Hamlen stand trial again.

For the past seven weeks the family of Georgina, who lived in Fig Tree Cottage, Brambridge, near Otterbourne, have relived the horrors of what happened to the much-loved pensioner in finite detail.

Both her son Harry Edmonds, who discovered her body in a pool of blood when he returned home from work, and daughter Doddie who was told the devastating news of her death while working as a nurse in Sudan, have given evidence in the prosecution case.

Jurors have also heard from a multitude of police officers, forensic experts, scientists and witnesses during the course of the trial in Court 3 at Winchester Crown Court.

Hamlen himself, who is a dad of one and stepdad, also took to the stand for a number of days to give evidence in his own defence.

The guilty verdict was returned before the court as the Edmonds family and relatives of Hamlen, including his wife Emma White and mother Linda Manning, sat in the public gallery.