Murdered teenager Rebecca Middleton’s family are still waiting, after two years, for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to decide if it will review the case.Rick Meens, who was hosting the 17-year-old Canadian when she was raped and murdered during a vacation on the Island in 1996, applied to the ECHR in January 2010.Mr Meens asked the court to find Bermuda and the UK guilty of failing in their obligations to respect the teenager’s human rights.He requested “a full judicial inquiry presided over by a United Kingdom high court judge with appropriate advisors to examine the entire management of the Rebecca Middleton murder, subsequent failed investigation, and the botched judicial handling of the prosecution and trials”.Two years after the application was filed, Mr Meens and the Middleton family are awaiting news. When justice campaigner Carol Shuman wrote to the court in late November to get an update, a spokesman replied that the matter is still pending.“There is nothing new happening in this case. As usual, the case will be examined as soon as practicable,” he added.Dr Shuman told The Royal Gazette: “It will be two years on January 6, 2010 since the application has been filed.“Because of the many, many applications that have been filed in the European Court of Human Rights, criteria for consideration have been changed to eliminate cases that are not appropriate for the high court.“Thus, we are grateful that we have been assured that Becky’s case remains on the docket, and I’m sure due consideration is being taken.”She added: “The ECHR makes it clear that cases in which there is immediate human rights danger have priority, and, of course, there is no way that Becky can be ‘saved.’ So we do understand that legal matters take a long time.”However Dr Shuman, who is a psychologist, said: “I have stressed to the ECHR that it is my professional opinion that Bermuda’s many current murders are directly related to a mindset that appears to have developed from the alleged violations in the management of the Rebecca Middleton case ... the human rights of every Bermudian and resident, in my opinion, continue to be at risk until the United Kingdom accepts, (as outlined in the Bermuda Constitution in the responsibilities of the Governor,) its obligation to ensure Bermuda’s internal and external security and for good governance of its territories.“We maintain that the issues of the application stand, and I believe they will be considered fairly; hopefully before there are more losses in this beautiful Island.”Rebecca’s father, Dave Middleton, who lives in Ontario, said: “We are still here; we still care deeply about this matter, we would like to see this matter come before the ECHR as soon as possible and hopefully this will set the standards for what is right and what is wrong in the legal system to a much higher level.“If dealt with, from our point of view, this will improve the level of justice from the courts mostly for the people of Bermuda but also set the standards for other jurisdictions to be aware of (and) strive for. In a nutshell it is doing the right thing.”The family has been fighting to bring Rebecca’s killers to justice for almost 15 years.The popular teenager was found dying at a remote spot in Ferry Reach, St George’s on July 3, 1996, having been raped and stabbed. The fact that no one has been convicted of the slaying has sparked negative publicity about Bermuda’s judicial system both at home and abroad.Kirk Mundy, a Jamaican then aged 21 and Justis Smith, a Bermudian then aged 19, were arrested days after the murder. Mundy was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of accessory after the fact before forensic tests were complete, and was jailed for five years.When new evidence later came in allegedly linking him to the killing, the Privy Council rejected a bid by prosecutors to have him face a fresh charge of murder.Meanwhile, the murder case against Smith was thrown out before a jury had a chance to consider it by Judge Vincent Meerabux, who said there was no case to answer.The Privy Council later criticised the judge for this “surprising” and “perhaps astonishing” decision, saying there was strong circumstantial evidence. Nonetheless, it ruled the decision could not be overturned because there was no right of appeal for the prosecution following such a finding by a judge.Chief Justice Richard Ground conducted a judicial review of the Middleton case in 2007. During the review, Middleton family lawyer Cherie Booth QC called for Mundy and Smith to be retried on new charges of rape and torture.But Chief Justice Richard Ground said the case could not be reopened before the courts due to the double jeopardy rule.According to family friend Dr Shuman, it was too expensive for Rebecca’s parents, Dave Middleton and Cindy Bennett, to fight the Chief Justice’s decision through the Bermuda Court of Appeal and potentially the Privy Council in London. However, there is no fee to apply to the European Court, with costs only incurred if the case is accepted for review.