"[3][5] In November 2002 Home Secretary David Blunkett ruled that Hughes would have to serve a minimum term of 50 years in prison before he could be considered for parole.

[11][12][13] Later that day he is believed to have attempted to abduct six-year-old Alexandra Roberts who was doing handstands in a park less than four minutes' cycle ride from the garden, but the girl ran away.

[citation needed] Having failed to find her after searching the garden and surrounding fields, she was reported missing to the police at 8.20 a.m.[17] It is believed that Hughes had lifted Sophie, still asleep in her sleeping bag, from the tent at some time in the early hours of 30 July.

Her naked body was found washed up on the beach half a mile away at Llandudno at 7.10 a.m. on 30 July 1995 by a local man walking his dog.

[18] Examination by Home Office pathologist Dr Donald Waite revealed that she had been subjected to an attack involving "considerable force" which had resulted in her right upper arm and ankle being broken, her body being covered with bruises "consistent with the gripping of the child by hand" and bruising around her head and face was consistent with punching or slapping.

[16] Death was caused by manual strangulation, lasting up to three minutes, after which her body had been thrown into the sea – probably an effort by her killer to wash away forensic evidence – near a cliff called the Little Orme at the eastern end of Llandudno's promenade.

[1] When Hughes was rejected after just two terms by Lindisfarne College at Wynnstay, Wrexham, his father unsuccessfully offered to pay double the normal fees if they would keep him as a pupil.

[1] By the age of 19, Hughes had 17 convictions for crimes including assault, burglary, theft, criminal damage, threatening behaviour, motoring offences and possession of weapons.

[citation needed] Hughes had been accused of indecently assaulting girls aged three, five and nine; police revealed that, during the three years preceding the murder of Sophie Hook, they had interviewed him in connection with five allegations "brought by, or on behalf of, children.

Hughes was arrested at the home he shared with his mother at 3.50 p.m. on the same day that the body was discovered, and detained at the police station in Rhyl, Clwyd, to assist with their inquiries.

The jury heard no forensic evidence which linked Hughes to the death of Sophie Hook, but they received valuable information from three witnesses.

A third witness, convicted child sex offender Michael Guidi, testified that Hughes had boasted to him a few years before that he would like to "rape a girl of 4 or 5".

[27] On 24 November 2002, the then Home Secretary David Blunkett announced that four convicted child murderers would each spend a minimum of 50 years behind bars before being considered for parole.

The Home Secretary's power of setting minimum terms was stripped 48 hours later as a result of a successful legal challenge in the European Court of Human Rights by convicted double murderer Anthony Anderson.

The government was also under public scrutiny for failing to prevent a firefighters' strike at the time, and earlier that month Myra Hindley had died after serving 36 years of her life sentence for her role in the Moors Murders.

[28] In June 2004, the far-right British National Party came under heavy media and public criticism for distributing literature across North Wales, featuring an image of Sophie Hook and several other victims of similar murders as part of a campaign for a reintroduction of the death penalty.