A CONVICTED murderer has contacted the Pioneer from his prison cell to plead his innocence.

Christopher Reed was jailed for life at Chester Crown in October for his part in the brutal killing of Lorraine Jones at a flat in Ellesmere Port the previous June.

Recommending that he serves at least 30 years, trial judge John Rogers QC branded him as a 'dangerous man'.

His girlfriend and co-accused Kathy Williams, 31, was sentenced to 24 years.

Now 40-year-old Reed, who is in Liverpool's Altcourse Prison, has had a friend hand an eight-page letter to the Pioneer in which he restates his claim, made in court, that Williams was solely to blame for murdering 45-year-old Ms Jones at the flat in Westminster Road.

Despite admitting that he helped dispose of the body in a lay-by at a North Wales beauty spot, he writes: 'There was no evidence on me whatsoever to say I have done anything to Lorraine Jones.'

The jury in the three-week trial at Mold Crown Court heard how Ms Jones, who had been staying with the pair, was beaten, stabbed, stamped on and strangled before her body was loaded into Reed's car and dumped on the road to Bala.

Both defendants denied murder but Reed admitted to perverting the course of justice.

In his letter Reed repeats his trial evidence that he knew nothing of the killing until he saw Williams moving the barely-alive victim on the morning after the fatal assault took place.

Hesay she and Williams then carried her upstairs to try and administer first aid.

When he realised Ms Jones was dead he says: 'I couldn't stand being in that room with a dead body, especially a friend of eight years ... I didn't know which way to turn. I foolishly helped Kathy Williams to move the body. I couldn't believe what I was doing.'

He says he did this because he didn't want his parents 'finding out my girl-friend had murdered my friend.'

And he adds: 'Williams was solely responsible.'

He restates the claim - which came out in court - that Williams bragged to fellow prisoners about what she had done to Ms Jones while on remand awaiting trial - when she thought she would only be charged with manslaughter.

Reed says at the end of his letter: 'The amount of evidence was overwhelming on Kathy Williams ... the only thing that has cost me 30 years is (allegations) made about my bad character, which were not proven. Surely this is not justice.'

It is understood Reed is in the process of lodging an appeal against his conviction.