FRIENDS of murder victim Mick Love have hit out at Home Office rules which mean the case is no longer logged as ‘unsolved’ – even though no-one has ever been convicted of the killing.

Postal worker Mick, a father-of-two, died aged 40 in 2004 when he was stabbed three times in a street robbery as he walked home along Cannon Street in Old Town following a night out .

Colin Lewin, then 35 and of Broad Street, Swindon, pleaded not guilty to the murder and was acquitted by a jury. No-one has since been convicted.

However, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show Wiltshire Police can still claim to be one of only six forces in the country with no ‘unsolved’ murders because, under crime counting rules, such cases are no longer logged as ‘unsolved’ once they come to court.

Paul Browne, 40, who knew Mick for about 15 years and worked with him at Royal Mail’s Door-to-Door Centre in Dorcan, said: “The rules should be changed. If they are saying there are no unsolved murders then that is absolute rubbish.

“Mick was murdered and no one was caught for it. Nobody is doing any time for this crime, so how can it not be unsolved?

“It should be counted as an unsolved murder.”

Mr Brown said listing the case again as ‘unsolved’ could help catch the killer because people would start re-asking questions.

He added: “They have closed the case on it and that’s the bit that hurts because this guy was a great guy, a larger than life character with lots of friends. This just adds insult to injury.”

Dermot Fuller, 45, who was with Mick just minutes before his murder, said: “As far as I am concerned, we perceive it as still unsolved.

“When I went to the inquest, we were told the case remained open but they aren’t looking for anyone else in connection with it unless there was new evidence.”

Mr Fuller said he also thought that changing the rules could help bring forward evidence to convict the killer.

He said: “If people are aware it is still out there, you never know what might come up.

“But if it has just been closed, it doesn’t sound like it is going to be looked at again.”

However Mr Fuller, who is the Swindon branch chairman of the Communication Workers’ Union, stressed that the police did everything they could and handled the case well.

Eamonn Treanor, 44, who knew Mick for about 22 years, said: “It sounds like the guidelines are wrong because no-one was convicted for the murder so it must be unsolved.

“It is a discrepancy between the way the Home Office counts and the facts in reality that would give a false impression.”

He added: “I can understand it from a police point of view because if they did everything possible and took someone to court, they would think they had solved it – even if they didn’t get a conviction.”

Wiltshire Police have two murders not logged as ‘unsolved’ even though no-one was convicted.

In the other case, popular cricket captain Adrian Cooksey died after being punched on a night out in Melksham.

The jury returned a ‘not guilty’ verdict on a manslaughter charge last year.

A Wiltshire Police spokesman said: “ For police recording purposes, bringing a case to court means it is not unresolved as far as we are concerned.

“Our job goes as far as handing a case over to the Crown Prosecution Service and leaving it to the courts – we have done all we can and therefore it is not ‘unresolved’ for our statistics.”