A tenacious Midlands journalist who spent nearly 50 years in the industry has died aged 77.

John Slater, who spent 40 years with daily titles the Birmingham Post and Birmingham Mail, died on Sunday after a long illness.

During his career he worked on major stories including the Cannock Chase child murders in which three young girls were killed close to the A34 in Staffordshire in the last 60s.

For most of his 49-year career in journalism he worked in and around Staffordshire, starting his career on the Walsall Times the day after his 16th birthday and later transferring to the Dudley Herald.

Renowned for his tenacity in chasing stories, he served a two-year spell on the Express and Star before joining the Post and Mail in 1959.

John also reported on the 1968 rail disaster at Hixon, near Stafford, a hospital fire which killed 24 people at Shrewsbury and a long-running corruption investigation resulting in the imprisonment of former Staffordshire County Council chairman George Newman.

Ex-colleague Jim Guthrie said John would be badly missed: “He was one of journalism’s old school, who gained the respect of everyone he met. They don’t make them like that anymore.”

John’s wife Heather died three years ago. He leaves a son, daughter and two grandchildren.

Daughter Carol remembered her father using an old typewriter to compose his stories: “He didn’t like computers and I remember the sound of typewriter keys filling our house when he was working from home,” she said.

His son Jonathan added that his father loved his trade even after he had retired and used to joke that he didn’t know how he found time to do other things because he loved his job so much.