CAPEL ST MARY: After months of waiting, a date has now been set for an appeal hearing in the case of an Ipswich man convicted of murdering a Suffolk pensioner.

Simon Hall, 33, formerly of Hill House Road, Ipswich, was given a life sentence for stabbing to death 79-year-old Joan Albert at her home in Boydlands, Capel St Mary, on December 16, 2001.

Hall, pictured, has always strenuously denied killing the pensioner and today his wife, Stephanie, has revealed his appeal will take place on December 7.

The hearing, which is expected to last three days, will take place at the Court of Appeal, which yesterday confirmed the appeal is scheduled for December.

In October last year, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) decided to refer Hall’s conviction to the Court of Appeal as it found new forensic evidence.

Earlier this year, Mrs Hall, who lives in Ipswich, wrote to Home Secretary Teresa May and Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor Ken Clarke as well as David Cameron and Nick Clegg expressing her concerns about the delay in setting a date for her husband’s appeal.

Hall was convicted at Norwich Crown Court in February, 2003. He appealed against his conviction, but it was dismissed in April 2004. Hall then applied to the CCRC for a review in June 2005.

At the time it announced it was referring Hall’s case for appeal, a spokesman for the CCRC said: “The commission believes that new forensic evidence is capable of undermining key forensic evidence presented at the trial and therefore raises the real possibility that the court would quash the murder conviction.”