Brit public schoolboy who raped and murdered housewife breaks 34-year silence, saying he is innocent

A BRITISH man jailed for life after being found guilty of torturing and murdering an American housewife has written a letter from his US cell, protesting his innocence.

David Carter, who grew up in the Midlands, has already served 34 years in jail for the 1982 murder of US housewife Gloria Black but has now written to a newspaper from his cell in High Desert State Prison to claim his innocence.

In the hand-written note, scrawled on yellowed prison paper, Carter said: "I've never been on Death Row, but my case was a death penalty case. I have always maintained my innocence."

Carter went on to say he had been trying to be transferred back to the UK, writing: "I have life without the possibility of parole, which means exactly that. I have been incarcerated for the last 34 years.

"As an English citizen, born in Walsall, Birmingham, I do have family members in the UK. I have applied for transfer to the UK three times and been denied three times."

He was lucky to escape the death penalty for the crime, which horrified the US.

Carter, who was just 21-years-old when he was arrested,  was found guilty of the rape, torture and murder of Black, whose body was found beaten and bloodied at her Pasadena home in California.

Black, whose husband was away on a fishing trip, was found in a pool of blood with her wrists and ankles tied together by electric cables harnessed to furniture.

The case against Carter included evidence of his fingerprints found over a whisky bottle at the flat with a cigarette stub found at the scene matching those at the suspect's family home.

Carter has never admitted to the crime, saying his fingerprints were at the house as he had broken into the flat.

He had only moved to the neighbourhood three weeks before the August 1982 murder with seven character witnesses testifying of his good character in the trial.

One told the local newspaper: "I have been around criminal cases for 20 years and I don't think this kid is guilty."

David Longland, a friend who was born in Shropshire but is now living in New Zealand, argued that David was a "good man at heart".

Carter, who attended a £2000-a-year school for three years, was saved from a harsher penalty thanks to a character reference given from his headmaster Noel Hadley.

Prosecutors had pushed for the death sentence with Carter only escaping the sentence due to his youth.

It was argued that the crime was so brutal that Carter should be executed with prosecutors arguing the torture used in the crime provided the "special circumstances" needed to pass the death penalty.

Carter, who attended Normanton for three years, was described as a quiet schoolboy who kept to himself.

He is now kept in High Desert State Prison which has a notorious reputation for violence.

The prison, which holds 3500 inmates, is known for the abuse inflicted by the prison guards on the inmates.