Police statements taken from a man stopped by a hitch-hiker 32 years ago, yards from where Hounslow teenager Lynne Weedon was murdered are being re-examined by detectives leading the re-opened investigation.

Bernard Andrews, a retired BBC producer, now aged 74, was driving home to Wraysbury from London along the Great West Road at about 1am on the night Miss Weedon was murdered in September 1975.

A hitch-hiker flagged him down at the Sutton Lane junction with the Great West Road, Hounslow.

After hearing last week that murder investigators had found a DNA link with Lynne and an East London murder, Mr Andrews contacted the BCI Times.

He said: "I was interviewed in 1975 and that was the last I heard. I presumed the murder was solved. When I saw it on Crimewatch I could not believe it."

Recalling what happened on the night of September 3 1975, Mr Andrews said: "A man waved me down and I rolled the window down to ask him where he was going. He said he was going to the west country, but he was very agitated. I had an instinctive sense I was to get away from him.

"I thought I have got to get out of here, so I drove off and left him there.

"The next day I saw on the TV that a young girl was raped and murdered and I said I've got to tell the police what I saw the night before."

Lynne Weedon, 16, was said to have been attacked between 11pm and 11.45pm on a footpath just 400 yards away from the spot where the hitch-hiker flagged Mr Andrews down.

Mr Andrews, then aged 42, said the police showed no interest until his story appeared on the front page of a paper.

Two detectives visited him at work and took down detailed statements and created a photofit of the hitch-hiker.

He described the hitch-hiker as aged about 26 with longish hair, wearing a brown jacket and carrying a black executive briefcase.

Miss Weedon's murder case was re-opened last week after forensic scientists used DNA evidence to link her murder to the killing of ex-glamour model Eve Stratford. A reconstruction of both murders was shown on Crimewatch.

A detective working on the re-opened case said Mr Andrew's original statements and the photofit are being used DI Colin Wetherall said: "Like any investigation this case is a jigsaw and as we find out more the pieces of it start falling into place. Any information people may have - no matter how small - any nagging doubt that anybody has is important. What may appear entirely inconsequential may be crucial for us to be made aware of."