A NANTWICH man accused of killing Wirral widow Alice Rye has claimed that another man confessed to her murder.

Kevin Morrison of Pinfold Caravan Site, Wettenhall Road, Poole is accused of stabbing the 74 year old mother of three to death at her home in Spital.

Her body was found partly clothed and mutilated after death. Knives had been placed in her eyes.

Morrison went into the witness box at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday, the day after his 60th birthday.

He said that he had read about the murder in a newspaper and had thought that it could have been done by a man he knew, Keith Darlington.

On the afternoon of the murder Darlington had asked him to mind a wrapped package for him.

Morrison claimed he agreed to do so because he had held similar packages for him in the past when they both lived in the same house in Ellesmere Port in the early 1990s.

Darlington told him the package was from a robbery in the Wirral and when he opened the package he found Mrs Rye's name on papers, bank and credit cards. There was also a knife broken into three pieces.

He threw the knife away on ground at Kelsall where his caravan was parked at the time and also threw other items into a skip in the town centre and Manchester ship canal.

He arranged to meet Darlington who, when he confronted him with the newspaper and said "That's you", had just said "Yeah".

Morrison claimed the Darlington then gave a detailed description of what he had done.

Earlier father of five, Keith Darlington, gave evidence and said that Morrison's claims were "a pack of lies". He had not handed over a package or confessed to a murder.

The case is expected to continue until Thursday or Friday.

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