A father from the Shropshire/Staffordshire border who turned sleuth to help catch his daughter’s killer has been awarded £8,000 by a judge to compensate him for his expenses and loss of time.

Bert Whitehead, who lives in Whitmore, near Market Drayton, refused to accept that his daughter Anita’s death in a house fire was an accident and spent six years trying to prove she had been murdered.

Earlier this year Alan Stead, of Meynell Fields, Loggerheads, near Market Drayton, was jailed for life for the murder of his wife, Anita, after he locked her in a computer room in the garage at their home in Slindon Close, Waterhayes, Newcastle-under-Lyme in May 2002.

Mr Whitehead spent months gathering his own evidence in a bid to show Stead had murdered his wife.

At Stafford Crown Court on Monday, Judge Mark Eades awarded Mr Whitehead £8,098 to cover his loss of time and expenses.

The judge also confiscated Stead’s home in Loggerheads, which was bought with the insurance pay-outs from his wife’s death.

Detectives investigating the fire at the time of the blaze prepared a file for the Crown Prosecution Service, which found there was insufficient evidence.

But police subsequently reopened the case and Stead was charged with the murder. Stead will face a full hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act in February next year at Stafford Crown Court.

Mr Whitehead said today he was not treating the money as a reward.

He said: It’s not an award or a cause for celebration but the judge used his powers to make an award to me for my expenses. He said I should be thanked for helping the justice system bring my daughter’s murderer to justice.”

He added even though he compiled six files on the case, the law did not apparently allow him to claim on his son-in-law’s assets.

But he said the judge used money from Staffordshire Crown Prosecution Service funds to make the award.

By Tom Johannsen