Freed Richey 'devastated' at toddler's death, but claims he is innocent

Published on Saturday 12 January 2008 22:36

DEATH row Briton Kenny Richey insisted last night he was an innocent man despite spending two decades on death row for starting a fire in which a two-year-old girl died.

The 43-year-old, who came within an hour of execution, arrived in the UK last week after 21 years behind bars.

The Scot was released from jail in Ohio on Monday after agreeing a plea bargain with prosecutors over the arson attack in which Cynthia Collins died.

In an interview with a Sunday tabloid, Richey insisted: "I did not kill that little girl."

He added: "I'm devastated she died but it wasn't my fault."

As he left the court in Ohio he faced an angry reaction from relatives of Cynthia.

But during the interview in an Edinburgh bar – for which Richey was reportedly paid tens of thousands of pounds – Richey showed little sympathy for Cynthia's family.

He told the paper: "Nothing can bring back that little girl but I've been rotting in my own hell for 21 years. I'm an innocent man, so if Valerie Binklay and the rest of them want me to fry for something I never did, why should I feel sorry for them?"

Richey was put on death row in January 1987 after being convicted of the arson attack on a block of flats in an Ohio town in which Cynthia died. In August last year the sentence was overturned at the Cincinnati Court of Appeal.

He pleaded no contest on Monday to charges of attempted involuntary manslaughter, child endangering and breaking and entering.

Richey left his mother's home in Edinburgh at 18 to live with his American father in Ohio. But on Wednesday he arrived back in Scotland along with his brother Steven, 38, and went back to the home of his mother, Eileen.

He told the newspaper: "I held her so tightly... I felt I was her little boy again."

Richey now wants to remarry ex-wife Wendy Amerud, 50 – who divorced him before the fire – and start a new life in Scotland with son Shaun, 22.