A decade on from the brutal murder of a "gentle and kind" man in his rural bungalow police are yet to find the killer.

The 10th anniversary of the murder of Alan Wood, originally from Gillingham, has brought with it a renewed appeal and a £50,000 reward.

Mr Wood was last seen alive at his local pub the Willoughby Arms pub in Little Bytham, Lincolnshire, which this week was flooded by friends and family who shared stories about him.

Two days later on October 23, 2009, the 50-year-old was bound with sellotape and repeatedly stabbed in the head. It appeared he was tortured for his pin number as his cards were later used to withdraw a small amount of cash.

Most disturbingly of all was a wound to the back of his neck inflicted after his death which suggested his killer had tried to decapitate him.

The gruesome scene at his home in Lound was discovered by friends the following day.

Aside from the financial motive it is still not known why Mr Wood was murdered.

The Sainsbury's worker was described by friends this week as a "gentle and kind person" who would "do anything to help anyone".

Colleague and friend Jane Wells said: “Alan was funny - he could be a very mischievous sort and would sometimes play tricks and pranks.

“He loved his music and gardening was part of his work as well as a huge passion.”

Mr Wood, a keen biker and photographer, was born in Gillingham but moved to Grantham when he was young and then on to Stamford and Careby before moving to Lound.

His youngest sister Sylvia Allett, 56, said: “Alan was gentle - a lovely gentleman. He was very generous and always had a pocket full of change to buy people drinks. He was our big brother.”

The fact he led such an unassuming life made the crime even more shocking and a motive even more difficult to establish.

Detectives have now launched a fresh appeal for information.

A spokesman said: "Many people from various different nationalities and communities lived and worked in the area and it may be that someone from within these communities has information that will help bring the guilty party to justice and provide answers to Alan’s family as to why the murder happened.

"It may be that some of these people have since returned to their home countries."

It is not clear how many people carried out the attack, but one of the offenders did injure themselves, leaving blood at the scene. Forensic analysis has given detectives a full male DNA profile but despite global database searched a match is yet to be found.

Detectives also found suspect footprints matching Converse trainers. With the help of Converse the print type has been narrowed down to a particular upper, which is available in two styles and was largely sold in Europe and North America at the time.

It was established during the early stages of the investigation that Alan's bank cards had been used in Bourne and Stamford over a couple of days after his murder at ATM cash points. A trawl of thousands of hours of CCTV revealed images of a person who can be seen below.

The person appears to be a man, 5ft 9in to 5ft 11in tall, dressed in a smart casual manner and wearing a distinctive striped scarf.

They have an unusual walk and experts have come to the conclusion that he limps due to his right leg being slightly longer than his left leg. The offender may also have been injured after the crime as blood was found at the scene. That injury could be to their hand.

A witness at one of the cash machine transactions helped police to put together the below efit.

Martin Holvey, the senior investigating officer from Lincolnshire Police, said the response to a renewed appeal to mark the anniversary had been good.

He said: “We have had a very positive response from the public, including some people who have contacted us for the first time and people that may have seen our offender.

“It all needs to be checked and verified but it’s very encouraging that people are contacting us 10 years on. We would like to thank the TV, radio and local press for the support they have given us.”

If you have information on the murder, call police on 101 quoting 111 of October 19 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

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