STUNNED Lowton mum Dorothy Atherton shared a taxi with killer Stuart Hulse just before he murdered Shirley Brown.

"It could have been me," mother-of-two Mrs Atherton told The Journal.

Speaking after contacting The Journal, Mrs Atherton told us: "I now realise how lucky I was that night.

"I only shared a taxi, Hulse took Shirley's life. It could quite easily have been me. It doesn't bear thinking about."

Mrs Atherton said she had known Hulse - jailed for life for the murder of the 46 years-old Lowton student - since she was 15.

"He was a friend. I trusted him otherwise I wouldn't have got in the taxi.

"After this I don't think I could trust anybody again.

"I never dreamed he was capable of doing something so horrible.

"I didn't know Mrs Brown but since her terrible death I have learned a great deal about her.

"She was a well-respected person; a loving, caring mother who didn't deserve to die. I only hope Hulse realises what he's taken away."

Hulse, a 37 year-old private investigator from Slag Lane, Lowton, pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court to the June 1996 murder of Mrs Brown, of nearby Allerby Way, Lowton.

Mrs Atherton, who at the Crown Court hearing was referred to by her maiden name of Small, said she was in a group of friends who had invited Hulse to the Derby Road, Golborne, party hours before he killed Mrs Brown in her own home.

"We invited him because he was on his own."

But Mrs Atherton this week disputed prosecution statements at Hulse's trial about party goings-on.

She said:"The party was just a decent drink with friends and not a sordid sex party.

"Only two couples paired-up and those who did were in strong and lasting relationships."

She said she had not watched the sex video which Judge Justice Forbes ruled had influenced Hulse's murderous actions.

Mrs Atherton said:"I didn't see the video but I feel he must have had it in him to do this without watching any video."

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