THE Trowbridge grandmother of murdered schoolgirl Zoe Evans has called for her killer to spend the next 50 years behind bars.

Ann Hamilton, 58, has detailed her family's grief at losing nine-year-old Zoe, in a statement to be read by a judge at Miles Evans' High Court tariff-setting hearing this summer.

Mrs Hamilton, of Westfield Road, wrote of the seven-year wait for justice and revealed the ongoing torment surrounding the uncertainty of Zoe's final moments.

Soldier Evans strangled his stepdaughter and buried her body in a shallow grave just yards from the family home in Pepper Place, Warminster.

Convicted in 1998, Evans has spent the last six years in jail without a minimum sentence being set.

Under new laws a High Court judge will set the minimum sentence or tariff with the hearing scheduled for late spring or early summer.

Mrs Hamilton wants the judge to know precisely how the horrific crime has impacted on her family.

"I want him to serve the next 50 years in jail," she said. "I wrote about the loss of Zoe and the uncertainty surrounding how she died.

"I know we may never find out exactly how she died. That is very hard to come to terms with. I had to leave my friends and neighbours in Farleigh Avenue because of the memories of Zoe coming to that house.

"It's also about the judicial system and the fact we have had to wait for seven years to find out how long he will remain in jail.

"I started the statement several times but got too upset to complete it."

The national Probation Service has been handed a major role in helping with the tariff-setting procedure.

Officers in Wiltshire are guiding Mrs Hamilton through the process, along with Victim Support.

Evans will get a chance to see his former stepmother's letter in the run-up to the hearing, and may decide to make comments on its contents.

The former Warminster soldier has never confessed to the crime, which at the time sparked the country's biggest ever hunt for a missing child.

West Wilts MP and shadow health minister Dr Andrew Murrison has been pivotal in pressing the Home Office for a hearing. Nationally over 500 families of murder victims are waiting for the killers of their loved ones to be given a final tariff. Under new laws David Blunkett recommended child killers be given a minimum whole life term, equivalent to 50 years.