The family of a pub licensee killed by her estranged husband are campaigning for him to be retried.

Sarah Thrippleton Hall, 37, died in a fire started by Jason Hall at the Chevin Inn at Guiseley.

Hall, 34, admitted her manslaughter but was acquitted of her murder by a Bradford Crown Court jury which decided he had not intended to kill her when he started the blaze which wrecked the pub in the early hours of Good Friday this year.

He was jailed for eight years after a ten-day trial last month.

Speaking for the first time since the trial, Sarah's parents Sam and Jennifer Thrippleton and their daughter Clair said they were now lobbying for Hall to be retried on the murder charge under newly-introduced double jeopardy laws.

They believe evidence not admitted by the original trial judge should be considered by a new jury.

Mr Thrippleton, 63, said: "We would like to see a retrial.

"We have been in touch with the Law Federation and I will be contacting my solicitor to see where we go from here."

Mrs Thrippleton, 60, said: "Hall will only serve three-and-a-half years. Sarah deserves justice."

A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service, which prepared the case, said it was up to the judge to decide what evidence was admissible during a trial.

The spokesman said: "Where applications to the courts are made these are made robustly to the judge. The judge, on hearing arguments from both prosecution and defence, ultimately decides as to whether evidence is admissible or not."

The couple, of Esholt, near Shipley, who ran Ashwood Tea Rooms in the village before they retired, said their eldest daughter was popular with her customers.

"Sarah was a very strong, kind, considerate person," said Mrs Thrippleton. "A customer came up to me at her funeral. They had been in the pub one night and their car had been snowed in. They didn't know how they would get home because they had no money.

"Sarah gave them the money herself to get a taxi. That's the sort of person she was."

Sarah had been running the Chevin Inn for three years before her death. Her family said she had known Hall, of Scotton Grove, Knaresborough, for about four years after meeting him socially.

The couple were married after a year but Hall moved out in an acrimonious split in May 2005.

"When we first met Jason we cannot say we were keen but Sarah loved him," said Mrs Thrippleton.

"He was always polite and he could not do enough for us but as soon as they were married he changed.

"He would never come for family meals and he would not let Sarah come home.

"She couldn't come out with me shopping - we had always done that.

"Whenever we went there he was there, he never left us together. He would not let her wear nice clothes.

"She was always glamorous but then that changed - she was always dowdy. I saw a dramatic change in her."

The close-knit family are still struggling to come to terms with Sarah's death. "Your eyes might be shut but you don't sleep," said Mrs Thrippleton.

"Every day is a hole in our life. You just make meals and go through the motions. I don't want to talk to people. Everyone is lost without her."

Sarah had studied art and design at Bradford College before studying textile design in Carlisle.

Sarah's 35-year-old sister Clair said: "We just don't know what to do. My mum has had the doctors out.

"I can't sleep and have not been eating."

e-mail: fiona.evans @bradford.newsquest.co.uk