The Newham Recorder has been helping detectives investigating the murder of a young father by releasing moving CCTV footage of the moments shortly before his death.

The Archant London title took the unusual step of showing the final movements of 22-year-old Peter Woodhams on its website.

The footage showed the young father parking his car outside a parade of shops before running towards an alleyway.

It is there that detectives believe he became involved in an argument with two or three youths.

He is then seen running back to his car and driving away in the direction of his home.

It is believed Peter was gunned down by the same gang of youths who stabbed him in the neck in January after he stood up to them for throwing stones at his car.

The story has been close to editor Colin Grainger because he had family ties with the murder victim.

Colin said: “Obviously it was a shock finding out. We first heard that a man had been shot, then that he had died. Then I found out it was my cousin’s daughter’s partner.

“It was the first time we had been in a position to run footage in this way and it was a technical challenge for us.

“First our e-mails could not cope with the size of the footage, which gave us lessons for the future, and we eventually managed to burn it to a CD.

“Then Gary Tallowin, our web expert at Ilford, managed to compile it into a format we could use.

“It is too early to say how much it helped, but we know the police have received many calls following the publication of stills in the paper and video footage online.”

The CCTV footage became the second moving image to be put up on the Newham Recorder’s website.

The first experimental video clip showed West Ham United’s play off crowd singing the clubs theme song Forever Blowing Bubbles.