TODAY we are able to bring you an astonishing insight into the mind of Heather Mook - a woman so callous she fleeced her mother-in-law of thousands of pounds, while at the same time trying to cover her tracks by feeding her husband rat poison and antidepressants.

As she serves a minimum five-year jail sentence, we gained access to transcripts of her police interviews using a new protocol drawn up by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Attorney General's Office and the media.

It's a charter with a clear and overriding objective - that justice should be seen to be done.

It means prosecution material which has been relied upon in court can be released - including CCTV footage, videos of property seized, maps and photographs and, as in this case, transcripts of interviews and statements.

Crucially victims, witnesses and family members will be paramount in the decision-making process about what should be placed in the public domain.

For the media, we believe the new protocol will be an effective tool in providing people with information they are entitled to, swiftly and comprehensively.

Such greater openness can, we feel, only strengthen the public's belief that the CPS is doing its job by prosecuting appropriate cases firmly and fairly.

And that in turn can only serve to portray our judicial system in the best light possible - as an open and accountable prosecution process.

Today's never-before-seen details of the callous scheming by Heather Mook are testimony to that.