Fresh charges cannot be considered against suspects in the Rebecca Middleton murder case, Chief Justice Richard Ground has ruled.

The slain Canadian teenager’s parents expressed disappointment with the decision, but are determined to fight on in the Appeal Court and potentially even the European Court of Justice.

However, Rebecca’s father, Dave Middleton, admitted yesterday that with a legal bill already nearing $100,000, the mammoth cost of taking the case that far could be prohibitive.

“I’m disappointed. I would have hoped it would have gone the other way of course, but I would say it’s not unexpected... someone told me a long time ago to get around this you have to get out of Bermuda,” he said.

“The cost just keeps going up. So far we are covering our bills (through fundraising by the Rebecca Middleton Foundation), but will we be able to continue to do that? I don’t know.

“I guess every time we hit one of these junctures in the road, we are going to have to re-assess. I hope we continue to get support.”

Rebecca, 17, from Ontario, was raped and stabbed to death while on vacation in Bermuda in 1996. No-one has ever been convicted for the killing.

Last month, leading British human rights lawyer Cherie Booth QC represented Mr. Middleton in arguing that suspects Kirk Mundy, 31, and Justis Smith, 28, should be charged with sexual assault, abduction, and torture since earlier attempts to try them for murder were bungled.

Rejecting this, the Chief Justice stated that despite his personal sympathy for the Middleton family and their “terrible loss,” he could not interfere with a previous ruling by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Vinette Graham-Allen that the case should not be re-opened.

The DPP has special status under the constitution of Bermuda which means the Chief Justice could not have ordered Mrs. Graham-Allen to press fresh charges, but he could have ordered her to reconsider if he found she had got the law wrong.

Through her lawyer, James Guthrie QC, Mrs. Graham-Allen maintained that she had not erred in law, although she indicated her regret that the Middleton family “suffered great injustice” due to a catalogue of errors before she was in her post.

Mr. Justice Ground yesterday upheld Mrs. Graham-Allen’s key point, that fresh charges against the two suspects are not possible under the ‘double jeopardy’ legal principal, which means alternative charges should have been pressed in the first place, and the pair cannot be re-prosecuted now.

Although this principle was abolished in England and Wales in 2005 and repeat trials are now allowed in special circumstances, it remains in place in Bermuda.

Explaining his ruling, Mr. Justice Ground said: “Before I can interfere with the DPP’s decision I have to find that she was wrong in law. She was not wrong. The (double jeopardy) rule is well established and straightforward. Despite the eloquent arguments advanced to the contrary, it is not permissible for me to ignore or modify it.

“It would require legislation, or possibly the intervention of a higher court, to change it.”

He said that in the absence of this, any judge would be obliged to throw out such an attempted prosecution “whatever he personally thought about the merits of the case or the justice of the cause”.

He added: “I appreciate that that will be a bitter disappointment to the applicant and other members of Rebecca’s family, for whom I personally feel great sympathy, but I have to declare the law as it is.”

Lawyers acting for Mundy and Smith applied for their legal costs to be paid by Mr. Middleton. Rejecting this, Mr. Justice Ground said: “The applicant has suffered a terrible loss, for which he can never be compensated. He has also suffered a wrong, in the way that this matter was mishandled at the outset.

“In my view he is entitled to explore every reasonable avenue in an attempt to put that right, and I am not going to order him to pay the costs of doing so.”

Mr. Middleton, 58, did not attend yesterday’s hearing. However, speaking afterwards from his home in Belleville, Ontario, he said the case would now got to the Court of Appeal in Bermuda — most likely in November.

If that proves unsuccessful it could go to the Privy Council in the UK and potentially to the European Court of Justice.

He also confirmed he would like Ms Booth — the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair — to remain on board as legal counsel for the next step of the legal process.

“She’s a big part of how we progress, and I’m very hopeful of that,” he said.

Rebecca’s parents divorced prior to her death, and although her mother Cindy Bennett, 55, was not directly involved in bringing the court appeal, she supported it and came to Bermuda to listen to the proceedings.

Speaking from Belleville yesterday, she said: “Of course, I’m disappointed. I was hopeful for a positive outcome. I think it is time for a change in the law in Bermuda, but if it has to go to a higher court, it has to go to a higher court.

“It’s not the first time I have had disappointment from the Bermuda courts and legal system.”

She added: “The worst has already happened (with Rebecca’s death) and can’t be undone. There are still more steps we can take.”

Lawyer Kelvin Hastings-Smith from the Mr. Middleton’s legal team said: “We are going to have a period of reflection and analyse what the judgement says. There are some very useful things that the Chief Justice has drawn our attention to.”

Mrs. Graham-Allen declined to comment.