A MAN appeared before Hemel Hempstead magistrates accused of murdering

war heroine Joan Macan six years ago. Mr John Parker, 47, of Chipping

Norton, Oxfordshire, was remanded in custody for a week. Mrs Macan, a

widow, was found battered to death on the garden path at her cottage in

Ashridge, near Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, on her 81st birthday in May

1988. She was a former French resistance worker who received citations

for rescuing Allied airmen. She was also a dog breeder and Crufts judge.