Hilda Murrell book hits shelves | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

A Masterton publisher has printed a book by a former high- profile British naval commander, who has been campaigning to reveal the truth behind the murder of his aunt, English woman Hilda Murrell.

Robert Green was Fleet Intelligence Officer during the Falklands War and was once on standby to drop nuclear missiles on Russia.

But he's now a firm advocate - as was his murdered aunt - for the scrapping of nuclear weapons and energy.

Along with his wife Kate Dewes, the former naval officer was in Masterton yesterday on a two-fold mission.

He was to be guest speaker at the Wairarapa branch of the New Zealand Institute of International affairs last night and had deliberately selected Masterton as a place to launch his book A Thorn in Their Side.

The book has just been published by Ian and Di Grant, of Masterton, and is a no-holds-barred account of Hilda Murrell's murder, and Mr Green's insistence that British Secret Service agents were responsible.

Miss Murrell's mutilated body was found in a copse in Shropshire, England, in March 1984. Mr Green is convinced she was murdered by the state.

His aunt was a Cambridge graduate and expert on growing roses who became an accomplished researcher into the shortcomings of the nuclear industry - especially the problem of nuclear waste disposal.

She knew many eminent scientists and wrote papers on the nuclear subject in and around the time the Margaret Thatcher-led government was waging war in the Falklands and advocating more nuclear energy plants.

It was not until June 2003 that a then 35-year-old man, Andrew George, was arrested and tried for her murder and sentenced to jail. He will not be released until 2018 and Mr Green and his wife have never believed he was the killer.

In the years since Miss Murrell's death, Mr Green and Ms Dewes have complained of having their telephone tapped and of mail being opened and vetted before delivery.

They now live in Christchurch but contend that nothing has changed in that regard.

Mr Green said Masterton was a good launching pad for the "explosive" book because it's "below the radar".

"We could never have got this published in Britain and probably not even in Christchurch.

"What is in this book is dynamite for the British government."

The couple want to see an "injustice" overturned by releasing Andrew George.

"We want him out of jail so we can get him protection and give him a chance to tell us everything about what really happened."