A date has been set for a 63-year-old Bristol man to stand trial over the murder of Bath teenager Melanie Road, who was stabbed to death in the city in 1984.
Melanie was just 17 when she died from multiple stab wounds to her chest and back.
The A-level student lived with her parents in St Stephens Close in Bath.
On Friday 8th June 1984 she went out for the evening with her boyfriend and other friends to the Beau Nash, a nightclub in Kingston Parade, a road which became part of the new Southgate development.
Melanie left the club 1.30am on Saturday 9th June, and was last seen alive by her friends a short time later in Broad Street.
She had decided to walk home alone, a journey that should have taken between 15 and 20 minutes.
Her body was discovered at 5.30am that morning by a milkman close to a block of garages in St Stephens Court, Lansdown, a short distance from her home.
A murder investigation began and during the following months in 1984 more than 90 people were arrested.
Christopher Hampton, of Staple Hill, appeared at Bristol Crown Court by video link yesterday (Friday 28th August).
No plea was entered and the trial date of 9th May 2016 was set.
Hampton was arrested at the beginning of last month on suspicion of Melanie’s murder, and charged the next day.
In April 2014, Avon and Somerset Police announced that they were carrying out a major review of the case to try to identify her killer. Officers said they had a full DNA profile of the man they believed was responsible.
