The population knows the government and the police were involved in a cover-up.”The ramifications of the case go beyond that. Certainly it’s true the name Julie Ward is known throughout Kenya. He is not exaggerating when he says: “I think it’s had an effect, certainly, on tourism, and an effect, therefore, on the economy. If you lot hadn’t been sitting in court in Nairobi, we wouldn’t have got the murder verdict.”His objective has always been limited – to find out how Julie died – but the effects on Kenya have been remarkably wide-reaching. Asked how the years have affected his family – his wife, Jan, and Julie’s two younger brothers – he says: “Things can never be the same.

Our previous, private, existence has disappeared; constant media exposure has seen to that But it is a price we willingly pay. The media have always sought to expose the truth behind Julie’s murder. They miss the point that Mr Ward has learnt to use media coverage as a shield in a country where people disappear all the time with few questions asked, that he knows how it operates – with anything but enjoyment. Mrs Ward has remained at home while he sought their daughter’s killers, as she did while he was working long hours to build up his businesses, although when she finally visited Kenya for the trial, she fell in love with the country the way that Julie had.Cynics sometimes suggest campaigners even grow to enjoy the publicity. But all I’m doing is following evidence and trying to evaluate the facts as I know them to be.”He misses Julie a great deal, but admits it is worse for his wife, who spent more time with her as she was growing up. if all the evidence was that she had been killed by animals, and I had this bee in my bonnet that there was more than that, then that would be obsessive because I would be flying in the face of the facts.

“I never really accepted it,” he says, thinking carefully, “because .. for instance … Campaigners about cot deaths and meningitis have faced the same accusation Mr Ward has heard the description applied to himself. But he is prepared to do almost anything if it brings him closer to knowing exactly how she died, and to bring her killers to account.Over the years, he has written a book. Now this story may be made into a film – showing how he hired detectives, cars, planes, forensic scientists and lawyers; how he forced the Kenyan authorities to admit they had covered up her murder to make it look as though she had been killed by wild animals; how he had to sleep in a hotel room with his daughter’s skull in a carrier bag in the corner, how he forced the police to bring two people to trial, how they were cleared, and how the police have so far failed to act on the judge’s recommendation that they consider the case against three other named suspects.That makes him sound obsessive, a label often used about parents who have lost children by people who have not. John Ward, now 63, disliked Kenya even on his first visit, when his daughter was still only missing.