Top lawyer Cherie Booth — wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair — arrives in Bermuda today ahead of a court hearing in the case of murdered teen Rebecca Middleton.

Ms Booth, one of the UK’s leading QCs, will represent the Middleton family at a Supreme Court judicial review on April 16 and 17. This will revolve around the brutal rape and murder of Canadian visitor Rebecca, 17, at a remote spot at Ferry Reach, St. George’s in July 1996 — for which no one has ever been convicted.

Two men were arrested in the case with Kirk Mundy, then 21, claiming to have had consensual sex with Rebecca and blaming co-accused Justis Smith, then 17, for the killing. Before Police completed forensic tests, prosecutors accepted Mundy’s guilty plea of accessory after the fact and he was sentenced to five years behind bars. Smith was tried in 1998 for premeditated murder, but Judge Vincent Meerabux ordered jurors to acquit him part way through the trial, ruling there was no case to answer. Rebecca’s family has campaigned ever since to have the case brought back to court.

Director of Public Prosecutions Vinette Graham-Allen decided last March not to reinvestigate the murder or consider fresh charges of sexual assault against Smith and Mundy.

The judicial review, expected to be heard by Chief Justice Richard Ground, will see Ms Booth deal with arguments as to whether there should be a re-examination of the evidence and pursuit of fresh charges. The Royal Gazette understands that Ms Booth will stay with friend and fellow lawyer Justin Williams in Tucker’s Town.