THE dad of murdered landscape architect Jo Yeates has welcomed a new TV drama telling the story of an innocent man wrongly suspected of killing his daughter.

David Yeates says he believed the programme will shine a light on police failings in their investigation which he believes led to delays in catching the man responsible.

Speaking from his Ampfield home, Mr Yeates said there had been “inadequacies” in the police probe – and he hoped the programme, which airs next month, could bring “a positive” and help improve future investigations.

He also spoke of the family’s loss at it prepares for the fourth anniversary since Jo was brutally strangled, before her body was found dumped at the side of a road in Bristol.

The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, which will hit TV screens next week, tells the story of Mr Jefferies, who was arrested on December 30 after the discovery of Jo’s body on Christmas Day in 2010.

Jo vanished on December 17 after going for Christmas drinks with colleagues in the city.

Mr Jefferies, a retired schooltmaster, was later released without charge.

He was later awarded an undisclosed payout, thought to be several hundred thousand pounds, after suing eight newspapers who he says hounded him and made distressing allegations relating to the killing.

Miss Yeates’ next-door neighbour Dutch engineer Vincent Tabak was jailed for life in 2011 after he was found guilty of her murder.

Jo’s family said they had been consulted about the programme but did not have serious objections because it was telling the story of Mr Jefferies and rather than Jo – although Mr Yeates admitted seeing the trailer on TV was “a bit of a shock”.

He said: “I believe that if the police had done a better job at detecting, rather than taking punts like going for Mr Jefferies, then things would have been sorted out a lot quicker,” he said.

Recalling that time, the 67-year-old retired IT worker added: “We weren’t part of the arrest and questioning and all that stuff, that’s something that happened away from us so it doesn’t bring back anything.

“When all that stuff was going down four years ago we had two lives – one where we were involved with the police and looking for Jo and the other life where we were at home.”

Mr Yeates said he and wife Teresa, 62, a Waitrose supermarket cashier, have not yet decided whether they will watch the programme, which airs on ITV on December 10 and 11, at 9pm.

Speaking about the fourth anniversary of Jo’s death, her father added: “It’s a difficult time full stop – there’s nothing that can make it more difficult.

“The best analogy is like when you lose a leg or lose an arm.

“It’s incredibly difficult – you always miss the arm and leg but you learn to live with it, you just cope with not having this part of you, that’s what this is with not having Jo.”