Human remains have been found by police looking for the body of Kate Prout at Redhill Farm in Redmarley at around 1pm today.

Det Supt Simon Atkinson of Gloucestershire Constabulary, who has been leading the search, said: "We have found human remains close to the location Adrian Prout identified as the place he buried his wife.

"No formal identification has taken place however we have informed Kate's family of recent developments.

"I hope this will mark the final chapter of these harrowing events for Kate's family."

On Thursday November 17 convicted murderer Adrian Prout, who had always denied having any hand in his wife's murder, confessed to killing Kate Prout.

He agreed to show detectives where she was buried and on Friday November 18 was transported to Redmarley from his prison cell and took detectives to the area where he believed he had buried his wife.

Extensive searching started at a 10 by 20 metre area of woodland on Monday November 21.

Gloucestershire Police made use of the best expertise in the country to try and find Kate's body as quickly as possible in order to enable her family to finally have some closure.

Officers were joined by a team from Specialist Group International in Surrey who are leading experts in forensic search and recovery and two body search dogs from South Yorkshire were also put to use.

Ground penetrating radar was used and two mechanical diggers worked in tandem with two teams of forensic archaeologists who constantly assessed the geography of the land that was being searched.

Kate Prout was reported missing in November 2007.