SUPPORTERS of a convicted wife-killer are hoping an unlikely alliance with farmer Tony Martin formed while inside prison could lead to his eventual release.

SUPPORTERS of a convicted wife-killer are hoping an unlikely alliance with farmer Tony Martin formed while inside prison could lead to his eventual release.

Former RAF Honington squadron leader Nicholas Tucker took Martin "under his wing" while the pair were in Gartree Prison in Leicestershire.

National newspapers have reported Martin may look to help Tucker in his continued fight to clear his name after he was convicted of murdering his wife Carol in 1997.

Tucker's fiancée Jenny Peacock, from Thetford, said she hoped Martin's high profile could help her campaign.

She told the EADT: "I know Nick did speak to him quite a lot and he helped Martin when he first arrived at Gartree. Tony used to comment on Nick's paintings and Nick helped him settle down.

"It is in Nick's nature to take people under his wing. The pair even commented about how being inside was like being in a prison of war camp."

Ms Peacock said Tucker would now be writing to the Norfolk farmer.

She added: "I'm not quite sure whether Mr Martin will help our campaign but any help would of course be welcome.

"I am pleased to think he will help and I would like anyone to stand up and be counted as far as Nick is concerned."

Tucker, 52, was convicted of murder at Norwich Crown Court six years ago after his wife's body was discovered in their car following an apparent road accident which left their vehicle in the River Lark, near Bury St Edmunds.

The police and the Crown Prosecution Service said Tucker had staged the accident to cover his tracks after strangling his wife.

The trial heard he had begun an affair with Serbian translator Dijana Dudukovic and this was given as a motive for Tucker killing his wife.

But throughout the trial and subsequent appeal, Tucker insisted the crash had been an accident caused after he swerved to avoid a deer.

Tucker, who is now in Cardiff Prison, is hoping to take his case to a judicial review after the Criminal Cases Review Commission rejected his second appeal hearing.

Tucker again declared his innocence last weekin a statement from prison on the eight anniversary of his wife's death.

He said: "To lose your wife, whom you have loved and loved with for 21 years, is a heart-rending experience.

"To do so in an accident, which you yourself feel responsible for, is traumatic. "But to be arrested, charged, tried and convicted of having murdered her is a mental and psychological horror beyond description."