Richey and fiance call in Max Clifford

THE fiance of Kenny Richey, the Scot on death row in the US, has turned to PR guru Max Clifford in preparation for his expected release later this year.

Karen Torley, who befriended Richey after writing to him in an Ohio jail, confirmed she had travelled to Clifford's London office this month to co-ordinate publicity for the two of them after he is set free.

She said media interest in the case had become "overwhelming" since news broke in January that his conviction and sentence for killing three-yearold Cynthia Collins in an arson attack had been overturned.

A federal appeals court ruled the Scot, who has spent 18 years pleading his innocence, should be retried within 90 days or freed because he received incompetent counsel at his 1987 trial. Richey could be free before the end of August.

Worldwide media interest is expected to be generated by the release of the 41-year-old, the sole Briton on America's death row, who has lived through 13 dates for his execution.

Torley, from Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, said: "When the news broke it became a nightmare. I probably spoke to about 50 or more journalists in one day and at one point I had a phone at each ear.

"The press were outside the house for days and my poor kids ended up leaving home because it got so overwhelming. I just thought, 'If it's like this now, what's it going to be like when he's actually released?'" She added: "I'd been talking about getting some kind of agent and my dad told me to go for Max Clifford. He's the only name you really know." Clifford has been behind some of the highest- profile tabloid media scoops of recent times. Among them were the kiss-and-tell claims about David Beckham and Rebecca Loos, Cherie Blair's pregnancy and former Tory Cabinet minister David Mellor's affair with Antonia de Sancha.

Torley said that under the deal, the publicist's firm, Max Clifford Associates, would control all media access to Torley and Richey and would be in charge of brokering exclusive interviews with newspapers and television. The release of the Scot is expected to spark a media bidding war for his story, which, experts say, could fetch tens of thousands of pounds.

Torley said: "They [Max Clifford Associates] will take 20-per cent of the big interview and then after that it's OK. There will be newspaper interviews and some television interviews but it's not really sorted out yet." Torley said that after the media interest in January she sent Richey a dozen A4 envelopes of newspaper articles about his case but he "still can't grasp how much interest there is in his story".

A spokeswoman for Max Clifford Associates in London last night confirmed the firm would be handling publicity for Torley and Richey on his release.

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