FOREIGN Office officials are sending a Neston man for tests to prove he was tortured in a Saudi jail.

The Government will pay for Les Walker to attend a world-renowned post-torture clinic, the Parker Institute in Copenhagen.

Doctors will carry out ultrasound examinations to identify whether he is suffering from deep internal scarring, which would prove he was tortured.

Mr Walker's cellmates, all Brits who were jailed for their parts in an alleged bombing campaign in Saudi Arabia, will also be tested there.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'We have concerns about their treat-ment while they were detained.

'We feel it is now appropriate to send Mr Walker to the Parker Institute, where a full investigation can be carried out.'

Mr Walker was sentenced for 12 years for his alleged involvement in a wave of bombings. But the 51-year-old insists he is innocent and says a false confession was forced from him by his 'sadistic' captors.

He served two and a half years before he and his five co-accused were freed after the intervention of the United Nations and the British Government.

Mr Walker is back home in Neston after spending some time with his daughter, Yvonne Wardle, at her home in Little Sutton. But he and his co-accused are not letting the matter lie and are considering taking legal action against their captors.

They also want a formal apology from the Saudi government - proving they were tortured strengthens their case considerably.

Mr Walker, who before his incarceration managed a housing compound for British Aerospace staff in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, said: 'I am hoping the clinic will back up what we have been saying all along - that we were tortured.'

Mr Walker is slowly adjusting to normal life following his imprisonment, which was mostly in solitary confinement.

He says he was beaten with pickaxe handles and canes, deprived of sleep, subjected to mental torture and forced to listen as guards threatened to attack his wife, Aida.

He said: 'I'm doing it slowly, one day at a time.'