A Yorkshire newspaper has handed out £5,000 in reward money to two women who helped find the killer of Leeds teenager Leanne Tiernan.

The Yorkshire Evening Post put up the reward at the height of the hunt for the killer of 16-year-old Leanne, who went missing in December 2000 and whose badly decomposed body was found in woodland last August.

Following appeals for information two women called police within hours of each other, to give them the name of 46-year-old John Taylor from Bramley, Leeds.

Last week he was given two life sentences for the kidnap and murder of Leanne.

At a ceremony at the Evening Post’s offices, editor Neil Hodgkinson presented each of the two women with a cheque for £2,500.

Neil said the newspaper decided to offer the reward in the hope it would elicit more information for the police – and in the end it did.

Det Supt Chris Gregg thanked the paper for its help and commended the two women for coming forward.

Leanne’s murder led to one of the biggest murder inquiries in recent times in West Yorkshire and at its height 200 officers were working on the case.

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