A man convicted for killing his wife has said key evidence used by the jury to convict him was "placed there to incriminate me" - and even said someone was co-operated with his victim to do so.

Glyn Razzell was speaking in front of a parole board hearing on Thursday during his third attempt to win his freedom, having been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 16 years in 2003.

A jury convicted him of murdering his estranged wife Linda in 2002, and the now 64-year-old has always maintained his innocence.

He repeated those claims during Thursday's hearing, one of the first to be open to the press and public.

Razzell was convicted based on bloodstains found in the boot of the car.

Asked for his explanation of the presence of her blood in the car, Razzell said: “I think that it wasn’t in the car when I had the car.”

He pointed to the fact the car had been examined three times, but no blood was found until the third examination.

He said the blood was “placed there to incriminate me” and when asked who by, he added: “It must have been with Linda’s involvement because it was fresh blood.

"So, I suspect it wasn’t Linda herself, I suspect it was someone cooperating with her.”

When told that “even at this stage, you are victim blaming Linda Razzell for her involvement”, he said: “I am not victim blaming. I am saying she was alive the week after she disappeared because it was fresh blood.”

Asked three times whether he killed his wife, he later told the Parole Board panel: “I didn’t kill Linda Razzell.”

Mother-of-four Mrs Razzell disappeared on her way to work at Swindon College, Wiltshire, in March 2002 and no trace of her body has ever been found.

During the trial, the court also heard how Mrs Razzell left her home in the village of Highworth, near Swindon, at 8.45am on March 19 with her children and boyfriend Greg Worrall.

She dropped off her boyfriend in Highworth and her children at school before being seen parking for work in Alvescot Road, as usual.

She is believed to have taken her usual route down an alleyway towards the college and her phone was found in a recess of the alleyway the next day during a police search.

The hearing continues.