CONVICTED killer Geoffrey Foster's appeal should not be delayed again, the Criminal Cases Review Commission said this week.

Yesterday (Tuesday) a spokesman for the independent body, which referred Foster's case to the Court of Appeal in November 2000, contacted the Knutsford Guardian to confirm the hearing would start on October 7.

"I'm aware it was delayed a few months ago but I shouldn't think that will happen again," he said. "There is a huge backlog of cases waiting to be heard at the court and they don't take kindly to requests for adjourning cases without very good reason."

The case, which is due to start at 10.30am, will be heard in courtroom six at the Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand, London. Foster, who is currently serving a life sentence at Liverpool Prison, is expected to give evidence during the five-day hearing.

He was jailed for life in 1986 after a jury at Chester Crown Court found him guilty of murdering Knutsford pools collector Harold Cheetham on Valentine's Day 1985. The pensioner had been strangled in the living room of his home in Southfields.

Despite confessing to the crime during a police interview and again under cross-examination at his trial, Foster has been protesting his innocence for 16 years from his prison cell.