CONVICTED murderer Glyn Razzell says his "miscarriage of justice" mirrors that of Stephen Downing.

The 44-year-old former Zurich Financial Services investments manager was sentenced to life imprisonment in November last year for murdering his estranged wife, Linda.

Her body has never been found despite exhaustive searches by police.

Razzell, who continues to protest his innocence from his prison cell, still denies any involvement with her disappearance or murder.

And he has written to the Advertiser to try and rally support for his ongoing appeal citing the case of Stephen Downing, who was convicted of murder on the strength of his own confession in 1973, but had his conviction quashed in the Court of Appeal in January 2002.

That decision followed a six-year investigation by Matlock Mercury editor, Don Hale, who was not convinced Downing murdered typist Wendy Sewell in a cemetery in Bakewell, Derbyshire.

Writing to the Advertiser Razzell said: "Even Don Hale of the Matlock Mercury who researched the Stephen Downing miscarriage of justice did so 20 years after the event.

"I lodged an appeal three months ago, but I am still awaiting leave. It seems to take forever.

"My case is unusual in that there is no body. One way to guarantee my release is to find my estranged wife, hence my desire to generate publicity carrying her photograph and details.

"My supporters are offering a reward for information leading to her whereabouts and are seeking media coverage to promote it."

Immediately after the six-week trial at Bristol Crown Court Razzell was sent to Bristol's Horfield Prison, but has recently been moved from there to Gartree Prison in Leicestershire.

A prison service spokesman said his transfer to the dedicated lifers' centre was "entirely procedural".

But while he awaits news on whether he has been granted leave to appeal against his conviction, Razzell will now embark on a series of education and training programmes to address his past misdemeanours.

With a population of 366, HMP Gartree, near Market Harborough, holds roughly half the number of prisoners of Horfield.

HMP Gartree was opened in 1965 as a Category C prison, but with a growing number of men serving life sentences it became a Category A prison in 1997.

A prison service spokesman said: "People move from prison to prison all the time.

"The chances are he (Razzell) was going to stay at Bristol, which is a local prison, until he was allocated a longer-term jail. This move is entirely procedural.

"In local prisons there is much less emphasis on education and training programmes aimed at addressing offending behaviour, but at places like HMP Gartree where there is a much less transient population, lifers are all in somewhere they can be dealt with as a group."

Giles Sheldrick