Trial's leading lights

The balanced and succinct approach to his summing up in the Razzell murder trial won him widespread praise.

Before the jury retired to consider its verdict he told them: "It is important to draw a distinction between arriving at a conclusion based on circumstantial evidence and mere speculation."

He reminded them it was the job of the prosecution to prove Linda was missing and that Razzell had killed her. They had to be sure of those two fundamental questions if Razzell was to be convicted, he said.

He told the jury the only key scientific evidence in the case was Linda's blood found in the boot of the Laguna being driven by Razzell the day his estranged wife disappeared.

"The key question is how did blood get there? There are, you may think, two realistic possibilities her bleeding or bloodied body was in the boot or somebody has planted it there. You have to get to grips with these two alternatives," he said.

In 2000 the Judge was on a panel of experts who assisted Lord Justice Auld in his wide-ranging review of the criminal courts.

He placed a temporary injunction against animal rights terrorists who targeted a company that uses animals for research, ruling the protesters should not go within 50-yards of the homes of employees of Huntington Life Sciences, a drug testing company.

The injunction was issued against the pressure group Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty.

PROSECUTION BARRISTER MICHAEL PARROY QC

OXFORD educated Mr Parroy, 57, led the prosecution case against Glyn Razzell and portrayed him as a cold, calculated killer whose motive for murdering his estranged wife Linda was for money and the love of a younger woman.

During the trial he told Razzell: "I suggest you killed your wife for the two oldest reasons there are money and a younger woman who you were in love with. That's right, isn't it?"

Mr Parroy, who lives with his wife in Wincanton, Somerset, said it was complete nonsense Linda was alive and well and said Razzell had carefully plotted the abduction and murder of his wife. He said Razzell was a chess player who had committed the perfect murder, because no body had ever been found.

Called to the bar in 1969, his particular areas of expertise include personal injury, crime and building disputes. He is a specialist in public transport work and speaks fluent French.

In January 2003 he defended Danny Porter, who was acquitted of involvement in the death of Mathew Hornsby, stabbed with a chisel in Freshbrook, Swindon, a year earlier.

Mr Parroy prosecuted in the case of Regina v Markham in which a Basingstoke man was charged with murdering a friend, chopping him up and leaving his body parts in a park in the Hampshire town.

He also prosecuted in the case of Regina v Soares and others, the country's biggest ever drugs case and second longest trial ever (1999 to 2003).

DEFENCE BARRISTER STEWART JONES QC

MR Jones, 58, a fluent French and German speaker also educated at Oxford, defended Razzell and told the jury the prosecution had tried to manufacture suspicion out of surmise. He argued that prosecution claims Razzell had abducted Linda and put her in the boot of a car he was driving on March 19 last year were not backed up by evidence no one came forward to say they saw or heard a violent struggle, attack or anything untoward in the alleyway connecting Alvescot Road and Upham Road in Old Walcot on the morning Linda vanished.

And he told the court the prosecution had tried to conjure up a "whiff of suspicion" by declaring Razzell had been to Barbury Castle on the afternoon of his wife's disappearance for some other reason than to get fresh air.

During his closing speech he told the jury: "The scenario painted on behalf of the Crown is far-fetched and fictional based on surmise and not based on evidence."

Called to the bar in 1972, Mr Jones prosecuted in the trial of Sharon Carr Britain's youngest convicted female murderer. Now 16, Carr was 12 when she was found guilty of murder at Winchester Crown Court.

He defended a family in what was described as one the worst cases of sexual abuse in a trial known simply as R v M. The details of those found guilty are still not allowed to be published. The family involved received a combined sentence of 100 years imprisonment.

Mr Jones also defended Stuart Morgan, who was found guilty of the kidnap and murder of French au pair Celine Figard.

DETECTIVE CHIEF INSPECTOR PAUL GRANGER

DETECTIVE Chief Inspector Granger, who led Operation Docker the hunt for Linda Razzell and her killer has been an officer with Wiltshire Constabulary for 17 years.

He has worked in Swindon, Melksham, Chippenham and Devizes and has led several major inquiries including the murder of Glyn Agard, Operation Cirrus a major drugs bust in Chippenham in 2001, the Lizzy Cooper murder trial in Trowbridge in 2002, the attempted murder of Julie Tuck in June 2002 and Operation Coldcall a rape case in Melksham in 2002.

He said Operation Docker and the subsequent trial had been complicated because Linda's body had never been found. But he always maintained Razzell was responsible for her death.

After the verdict he described Razzell as a "methodical, very intelligent individual who plans everything and that showed by the way he planned the murder of his wife".

DCI Granger's team collected massive amounts of evidence in the 18 months between Linda's disappearance and the trial.

Operation Docker cost more than £250,000 and employed a raft of specialist teams from forces across the country and ranked alongside other notable cases in recent times liket the Zoe Evans and Randle Williams murder trials and the trial into the death of Freshbrook builder Mathew Hornsby.

The Razzell murder trial was the first time Wiltshire Constabularly had brought a murder charge against someone without finding a body.

He reiterated that Operation Docker remained opened and the search for Linda's body continued.

DCI Granger, whose team included DS Ady Wys, DC Peter Ritson, DC Tim Mobey and DC Keith Hollands, is now in line for promotion after the success of the trial