A father cleared of murdering his wife, today broke a five-year silence to tell how his life has been ruined by the accusation.

Keith Hall, 44, was acquitted of killing his 39-year-old wife Patricia in March 1994 after the trial judge ruled that his alleged confession to the crime to an undercover policewoman was inadmissible as evidence.

He was alleged to have killed her after a row and disposed of the body. Mr Hall said she had driven off in the family car and he has not seen her since. No trace of her has ever been found.

Now, Mr Hall has finally spoken to say how he believes his life will permanently be overshadowed by his wife's unsolved disappearance.

Next Thursday a Channel Four documentary, called Coppers, is screened containing details how the woman police officer began an affair with him to extract the alleged confession.

And Mr Hall said it is the latest example of how he will never be free of scrutiny surrounding his wife's disappearance, despite his innocence.

"I'm trying to get on with my life, but something else always comes along to bring up the past again," he said.

"Some people are supportive towards me, others aren't - I try to rely on myself anyway.

"I get fed up at times, all I'm doing is trying to rebuild my life. But questions to do with the trial will never go away. Something will always resurface - there will always be ground uncovered."

Mr Hall spent 12 months in prison on remand after he was accused of murdering his wife who disappeared from their Pudsey home on January 27, 1992. Mr Hall, a father-of-two, was arrested in March 1993. At the murder trial the following year he was acquitted after the judge Mr Justice Waterhouse's ruling that the tape-recording of the alleged confession was inadmissible as evidence.

Today, Mr Hall told how he has tried to re-build his life but he found himself drifting in and out of odd jobs while trying to bring up his sons, Andrew, 17, and Graeme, 13.

And he has also revealed how he is writing a book about his experiences during the murder trial and how it affected his life afterwards.

"The aim of the book is to try to prevent anybody else having to go through the same situation as I did," he said.

"How can innocent people be put in prison for 12 months, ruining their lives, when at the end of the day they're proved not guilty?"

He added that he knew all along he was being strung along by the undercover policewoman, but decided to go along with the plot.

He said: "I knew all along what was going on. I can be heard on the tapes saying that I confessed "just because I didn't want to lose you".

"There should have been no question of those tapes having any chance of being used as evidence.

"The book will look at how the police went about their operation and the shortfalls of that operation.

"I believe that no matter what the outcome of the trial was, they were out to try to ruin my life anyway. I don't hate the police, all I want is for them to do the job they were appointed to do without having to twist the truth.

"Why should innocent people have to suffer just because the police are scared of owning up to their own shortcomings?"

To this day, the whereabouts of Mrs Hall have not been established.

Her family failed in a bid in December 1995 to have her legally declared dead after the High Court upheld a decision by the then Home Secretary Michael Howard to turn down their requests for an inquest, saying it would be unfair on Mr Hall.

West Yorkshire Police say the inquiry into Mrs Hall's disappearance remains open.

A spokesman said: "If any new information comes to light we will act on that information accordingly."

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