'George Edalji - guilty or innocent?' - New research uncovers clues to unsolved mystery hanging over Cannock since 1888

It is a historical crime conundrum which has hung over a village near Cannock and intrigued historians and authors.

The case was a cause celebre championed by the likes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, as campaigners protested that there had been a miscarriage of justice.

But now a book called Get Edalji presents compelling new research using modern techniques and uncovering important clues - including the inadvertent role the Express and Star may have played in triggering those events in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain.

Edalji was the son of the vicar of St Mark's Church in Great Wyrley. While intelligent, he was what would today be considered a nerd with a disconcerting manner and no friends. 

He was suspected by police of being behind a longrunning campaign of poison pen letters in the village, written under assumed names. Then animals began to be mutilated in a series of sickening attacks, described as the Great Wyrley Outrages.

Edalji, a solicitor, was charged with an attack on a pony. Found guilty despite his denials, he received a seven year sentence, being released after three.

Petra Weber has written the book under the pseudonym Rose H. Schmollek. It's an anagram - we'll leave it to readers to do the elementary detective work to unravel of what - to reflect the international team of experts who have supported the project. 

She said: "We researched the crime case of George Edalji, who was convicted in 1903 for maiming and writing threatening letters in Great Wyrley. This research was done in collaboration with forensic linguists, who did analyses suggesting that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was mistaken in his case assessment.

"We have published our results in a crime case analysis titled Get Edalji.