THE family of former Ebbw Vale steelworker Arron Powell, tragically killed in France last year, say their desperate fight for legal public funding may finally be over.

As the Argus revealed, widow Maria Powell, (pictured) 46, from Cardiff, was faced with the prospect of crippling legal bills after her 56-year-old husband was stabbed to death at Orleans railway station in April last year.

She was advised that she would have to pay her own fees for criminal injuries compensation claims because they are tied to the criminal justice system.

Both she and her husband's granddaughter, Renee, five, faced an uncertain financial future with a legal bill of £9,000 already paid and the prospect of finding another £11,000.

But since we highlighted her case last month, she has now received the news from legal experts that she may be entitled to public funding in France after all.

Close family friend Eric Harmer, who runs the Duke of Clarence pub in Canton, Cardiff, said he would remortgage his own house if he had to in order to help Mrs Powell. He paid tribute to the Argus, saying: "If it wasn't for your article we wouldn't have had the exposure that followed it on television, and a national newspaper is interested in the story.

"It seems now there is a gaping hole in the advice we've been given. We are more confident that assistance will be available."

The trial of the man accused of his murder, 20-year-old Elias Laguedani, was due to take place this summer, but has now been adjourned until the end of the year. His death was a second tragedy for Mrs Powell in just 14 months.

Mr Powell was travelling through France en route to Barcelona to get over the death of their daughter, Mandy, a year after she was killed by a hit-and-run driver in Cardiff, when the incident took place.

Mrs Powell and Renee had been due to join him a few days later.