Pensioner to face court over historic toddler murder charge

David Dearlove, 70, is accused of murdering 19-month-old Paul Booth, from Haverton Hill, Stockton, who died in hospital in October 1968.

He also faces a charge of child cruelty.

The defendant will appear at Teesside Crown Court via video-link from Great Yarmouth Magistrates' Court.

At a previous hearing, it was said that Dearlove was the then-partner of Paul's mother, who died in the 1990s.

He lives in Great Yarmouth with his wife of 36 years and has no previous convictions, it was said at the last hearing when he was granted bail.