Police have revealed they will not be carrying out a new inquiry into the mysterious death of Paula Ramsden, who fell from a 500ft cliff.

Detectives who spent months investigating the death of Mrs Ramsden, who fell from Beachy Head while walking with her husband Paul, said: "We have done as much as we can."

At an inquest last week a coroner, who described Mr Ramsden, 38, as a calculating man capable of killing his wife, recorded an open verdict into her death.

East Sussex coroner Alan Craze said he did not believe Mr Ramsden's claim that mother-of-two Mrs Ramsden, 32, who was afraid of heights, fell accidentally from the cliff on January 9, 2000.

Mr Ramsden, an operations manager for Shell UK, who was having an affair with a work colleague, was arrested on suspicion of murder but released without charge.

After the inquest, detectives said they would review evidence from the inquest, saying at least one area of evidence was worth following up.

But now they have said nothing new has emerged to put the case back before the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Meanwhile, Mr Ramsden has said he now has "no interest" in pursuing a £225,000 life insurance policy on his wife's life, taken out just months before she died.

Detective Inspector Tim Guyton, who led the inquiry into Mrs Ramsden's death, said: "I am satisfied after spending three months on this inquiry we have done as much as we can. We could not persuade the CPS to bring a prosecution.

"There will not be a new inquiry unless we receive new information. One possible source of new information would be from a third party who may have been told something in confidence. As yet that has not happened.

"There is no way any more can come from what happened on the top of Beachy Head that night because only two people really know. One is gone and the other, Paul Ramsden, is sticking to his guns.

"There was one area we wanted to look at following the inquest but it came to nothing. After an extensive inquiry at the time, I would have been disappointed if something new had emerged."

Mr Ramsden, 38, branded a manipulating control freak by Mr Craze, insisted he and his wife were wrapped in each other's arms enjoying a cuddle moments before she turned and fell at the beauty spot near Eastbourne.

Now Paula's family, who after the inquest said many questions remained unanswered, say they are considering a civil action against Mr Ramsden.

The three-day inquest in Eastbourne last week heard how six months before Paula's death Mr Ramsden, on the advice of an independent insurance broker, took out a new life insurance policy on his wife's life.

Throughout the inquest, Mr Ramsden maintained the money was intended to provide childcare and clothes for the couple's children and said it would not have been for his personal use.

Paula had a daughter with Mr Ramsden and a son from a previous marriage, who Mr Ramsden admitted treating too harshly.

Mr Ramsden's solicitor, Stuart Grace, said his client was not interested in pursuing the money and the matter was now left to Paula's sister, Mandy Cottle, of Tadworth, Hampshire, a co-trustee of the policy.

Mr Grace said: "The evidence we brought out in court indicated the insurance policy would pay out in trust for the children and not in favour of the trustees, who are my client and Mandy Cottle."

Mr Grace said Mr Ramsden, believed to be keeping a low profile at his home in Mannings Heath, near Horsham, was not prepared to comment on the inquest or what happened at 4pm on Sunday, January 9, 2000, at the top of Beachy Head.