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Murder of Teresa De Simone
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<p>Teresa Elena De Simone (24 June 1957 – 5 December 1979) was <a href="/facts/Murder_in_English_law/u4MWVPHn">murdered</a> in <a href="/facts/Southampton/LbJP1fIt">Southampton</a>, England, in 1979. Her murder led to one of the longest proven cases of a <a href="/facts/Miscarriage_of_justice/rvr3dVgp">miscarriage of justice</a> in English legal history. The murder occurred outside the <i>Tom Tackle</i> pub and was the subject of a three-year police investigation which resulted in the arrest of Sean Hodgson. Hodgson was convicted of the murder by a <a href="/facts/Unanimity/FwL33YmN">unanimous</a> <a href="/facts/Jury/cJofrUeI">jury</a> verdict in 1982 and was sentenced to <a href="/facts/Life_imprisonment/IMr3MIwe">life imprisonment</a>. After serving 27 years in prison he was exonerated and released in March 2009. <a href="/facts/DNA_profiling/NhYPDDH4">DNA</a> analysis of <a href="/facts/Semen_sample/orD9znfB">semen samples</a> that had been preserved from the original crime scene showed that they could not have come from him. </p><p>As a result of Hodgson's appeal, Operation Iceberg was created by the <a href="/facts/Criminal_Cases_Review_Commission/ua4Lh0Vg">Criminal Cases Review Commission</a> (CCRC) with the aim of using <a href="/facts/DNA/nB89Iauz">DNA</a> evidence in pre-1990 <a href="/facts/Rape/7RLDwHCN">rape</a> or murder cases. This led to the review of 240 other convictions. The CCRC also requested that the <a href="/facts/Crown_Prosecution_Service/ydGpE4cz">Crown Prosecution Service</a> identify and review similar murder cases from the time before DNA testing was available. In September 2009, on the basis of DNA evidence from his exhumed body, police named David Andrew Lace as the likely killer. Lace, who was 17 at the time of the murder, had confessed to police in 1983 that he had raped and killed De Simone, but officers refused to believe him. Lace committed <a href="/facts/Suicide_in_the_United_Kingdom/NkQXUw4b">suicide</a> in December 1988. </p><p>On 27 October 2012, three years after his release, Sean Hodgson died from <a href="/facts/Emphysema/ud3oXGCr">emphysema</a>. </p>