THE MAN suspected of the holiday murder of a Winsford woman is set to stand trial in Greece next month.

A year after the the tragic death of Wendy Sullivan, her family say time has not eased their pain, but they hope the trial of Ukranian national Denis Pavlenko will bring justice for the crime.

Pavlenko stands trial for murder in Athens on October 8. He also faces a rape charge for an alleged attack on another British holidaymaker.

Wendy, 25, was murdered on the Greek holiday island of Rhodes on September 12 last year. Her killers abducted her from the resort of Faliraki and took her to nearby secluded woodland where they attempted to rape her. When she fought back they beat her about the head and strangled her.

Pavlenko, 22, confessed to the murder after police found traces of blood on his clothes. He also implicated an accomplice, Roman Maximov, a 19-year-old construction worker from Moldova. But the suspect fled the island just hours after the murder and has since evaded capture, despite efforts by Interpol to extradite him.

Wendy, of Lime Grove, Wharton, was killed just days before she was due to act as godmother at her sister¹s baby daughter's christening.

Sister Jenny Steyn, 31, said: "A year on, it's not really any easier. We just look to the trial now and hope that, if it's nothing more than prevention, something good will come out of it to deter others from coming across the border to do the same thing.

"Hopefully they will give him (Pavlenko) quite a severe sentence and this will serve as a warning to others trying to come across from Eastern Europe."

She said: "We just want to see justice done now."

Wendy, a care worker, had only gone on holiday at the last minute after bumping into an old school pal. At an inquest held into her death in Crewe in June, Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg heard the two pals were separated in the early hours of the morning after a night out clubbing.

Wendy was last seen stepping into a white saloon car at 8am of the morning her body was found.

It is possible she thought this was a taxi, but at the inquest, Detective Inspector Eddie Smith, of Northwich police, said Pavlenko and Maximov were known to be actively harrassing young female holidaymakers.

Det Insp Smith, the investigating officer in the UK, told the Chronicle:
"Pavlenko will face a charge which is the Greek equivalent of murder, and the rape of another female from this country - another holidaymaker, as I understand.

"It's known these two men were pestering female tourists on a regular basis.

The police on Rhodes knew that. Tragically Wendy was killed. We've just got to hope we get a positive result at the trial."

The trial is expected to last a week.