A GWENT Assembly Member says prosecutors must reach a swift decision over whether to bring charges against a firm under investigation after a father killed his 11-year-old daughter.

Cardiff-based AB Biomonitoring is still under investigation over allegations that it used the Internet to inflict actual bodily harm on the mentally ill father who later stabbed his 11-year-old daughter to death.

A year ago yesterday, Philip Andrew Hall, a paranoid schizophrenic, killed his daughter Emma (pictured) by stabbing her through the heart at their home in Whitelye, near Tintern.

He stabbed her through the heart in the deranged belief she would rise again from the dead.

On the anniversary of the tragedy, lawyers from the Crown Prosecution Service were still considering whether to bring landmark criminal charges against AB Biomonitoring. But Monmouth AM David Davies said the matter should be decided quickly.

He said: "I was very upset when I heard about the case. "I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing this matter is concluded as swiftly in possible. A year is long enough for the family to wait."

The Argus revealed in April that Gwent Police were preparing a case against the company after jurors heard during Hall's trial for his daughter's murder that a hoax business trip to India - sparked off by alleged bogus e-mails - had made the 45-year-old's schizophrenia worse.

Following the court case, Mr Hall's solicitor, Andrew Twomlow, claimed his client was "the victim of a cruel hoax which acted as a catalyst for this tragedy".

If the CPS proceeds with the case, understood to be the first of its kind in the UK, it could have major implications for the senders of malicious or hoax e-mails.

Hall was ordered to be detained indefinitely at a medium secure psychiatric hospital after being found not guilty of his daughter's murder by reason of insanity.

During Hall's trial at Swansea crown court last December, a rival company was alleged to have sent hoax e-mails to Hall's employers, Molecular Light Technology, which resulted in him being sent on a bogus business trip to India.

The court was told that the stress of the wasted trip caused Hall's illness to worsen, and it was just hours after landing in Heathrow that he killed Emma, a pupil at Monmouth Comprehensive School.

Following the tragedy, Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust has recently completed an internal inquiry into Hall's treatment.

The report results will not be made public, despite calls for this by campaigners for mental health reform.