PENSIONER Victor Hearne has described being hailed by police as the man who helped convict three murderers as the "proudest day of my life".

Former litter-picker Mr Hearne, 65, of Alice Smith Square in Littlemore, Oxford, picked up a Chief Constable's Commendation for finding the weapon used to kill Oxford student Arash Ghorbani-Zarin in a so-called "honour killing" in 2004.

Mr Hearne, whose wife Betty died earlier this year, spotted a bag being thrown from a car into an allotment.

The bag contained a knife, which eventually led police to Mr Ghorbani-Zarin's killers.

Without this evidence, police said they would have struggled to secure murder convictions against Chomir Ali and his teenage sons, Mohammed Mujibar Rahman and Manmoor Rahman, all from Asquith Road in Rose Hill, Oxford.

Mr Hearne said: "This is the proudest day of my life.

"The only difficult bit is that I would have loved to have had my wife with me here to see the outcome.

"I'll do anything to help anyone, that's in my nature.

"When I saw the bag being thrown from a car into the allotment, I thought it was very strange behaviour.

"When we found the knife and clothes inside, I put two and two together. There had been a murder only a few days ago.

"Without that, the police would have had little forensic evidence. I am proud because I think what if it had been your son - you would have wanted someone who saw something suspicious to say something'."

Mr Ghorbani-Zarin, 19, was stabbed to death in November, 2004 in Spencer Crescent, Rose Hill.

A trial two years ago heard how he was stabbed 46 times by Manmoor Rahman while his brother held him down.

The brothers carried out the killing on the orders of their father, Ali, because Mr Ghorbani-Zarin was in a relationship with their sister, Manna Begum, and had made her pregnant.

Just days after the killing, Mr Hearne saw a Tesco carrier bag being thrown from a car into an allotment in Rymers Lane, Oxford, while he was out litter-picking.

When he contacted police, they found a head scarf and knife covered in Mr Ghorbani-Zarin's blood.

The entire murder investigation team also received commendations for their work on the case at the awards ceremony at Drayton Park Golf Club.

A spokesman for the team said: "This case was particularly challenging because there were no eye-witnesses to the murder. It was very difficult to get information."