The Grimsby Telegraph has come in for praise for helping snare a killer.

The paper produced a series of posters and leaflets appealing for information following the death of 20-year-old James Donson.

More than 100 posters and thousands of leaflets were published by the Grimsby Telegraph to help the police with the murder investigation.

They were plastered around the scene in Hainton Avenue, with the vital one visible from Wintringham Road.

And it was after seeing one of these posters that Grimsby man Paul Dean confessed to his girlfriend that he had killed James.

Giving evidence at Hull Crown Court, key witness Katie Forsyth told how her boyfriend admitted to the attack after she spotted a poster.

She told the jury: "As we were walking down Wintringham Road, I saw the poster and said to Paul: 'Who do you think did that? I bet it was smackheads.'

"He said: 'It was me'."

Dean is now serving a nine-year sentence for manslaughter.

Afterwards the dead man's mother, Sandra, said: "It was those posters that caused everything to start happening. If Paul Dean hadn't have commented and told Katie Forsyth, no one would have known. Really, those posters were one of the biggest things in it."

Det Supt Gavin Baggs, who led the investigation, which at its peak involved 50 police officers and support staff, said: "The Telegraph played a vital role. You would expect a local newspaper to give something like this a lot of coverage, but the newspaper went further than that and provided specific assistance in printing and publishing posters on our behalf.

"We now know from the evidence heard in the trial, that publicity and posters, and also leaflets that the Telegraph printed, were important in raising public awareness and actually convincing the key witness, Katie Forsyth, that she should do something."

Telegraph editor Michelle Lalor said staff were only too happy to help in such a serious case, adding that it was part of the newspaper's pledge to play an active part in community life.

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