DETECTIVES may interview officers involved in the murder investigation of Knutsford pools collector Harold Cheetham, it emerged this week.

On Monday Detective Inspector John Burt told the Knutsford Guardian that police were looking at the evidence used to convict Geoffrey Foster after the Criminal Cases Review Commission referred his case to the Court of Appeal in November.

"We've got the old file out," he said.

"The case is going to appeal so the defence obviously want to question the original evidence. We are looking at the police interviews and the details from the trial, and some of the officers may have to be interviewed in the process."

Foster, who confessed shortly after the murder but later retracted his statement, was jailed for life in 1986 for strangling 74-year-old Mr Cheetham at his Southfields home.

It is believed his lawyers now claim to have new evidence about the way Foster was interviewed during the investigation which will be used at his appeal.

Previous attempts to free Foster have failed.

An appeal was turned down in 1987 and in 1993 the Home Office refused to send his case back to the Court of Appeal.

Earlier this month an officer involved in the case told a Guardian reporter he had evidence that Foster did not kill the lonely pensioner on Valentine's Day 1985.

"I've seen a lot of murder convictions in my time but this case I was never happy with," said the officer. "There were just too many flaws in the investigation."

But DI Burt said the claim would not have any bearing on the appeal.

"It won't make a difference," he said.