Midnight Celebrity: Kenny Richey’s ex-fiancee speaks out

The ex-fiancee of freed death row prisoner Kenny Richey has said she doesn't think she'll see him once he returns to the UK.

Anti-death penalty campaigner Karen Torley met and fell in love with the Scotsman when he was behind bars after being sentenced to death for killing two-year-old Cynthia Collins.

The pair were engaged for six years before their relationship broke down but Karen continued to fight for his release.

Kenny spent 20 years on death row and came within an hour of being led to the electric chair in the state of Ohio.

But he has now been freed from prison after his 1987 conviction for starting the fire that killed Cynthia was overturned.

In a court hearing on Monday Richey's no contest plea to involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment was accepted and he was sentenced to time already served. The 43-year-old is now expected to return to Scotland.

After supporting his campaign for so many years Karen, who now has a new partner, has said she doesn't think they will spend time together. She said: "I don't know whether I will see him or not. He's got his family and I've got mine.

"When we attend Amnesty events or whatever we may meet up.

"I've got my family and my own partner and things are fine for me. I'm just happy for him, happy that he's got the chance to come home and see his mother."

Kenny had been shaved and was getting ready to be led to the electric chair when he was saved in the final hour.

Karen said: "He's been ready to do that quite a few times. It's not got that close but we've had dates where it's got quite close.

"I spoke to him before he left prison and he was very nervous. He just said that he thought he should be more excited and he wasn't. He didn't feel excited about it at all.

"I told him I felt the same. We worked it out that it was probably because he'd been told so many times this was going to happen and there had been so many disappointments over the years."

Karen admitted that things are going to be tough for Kenny now. She said: "Coming back now after 21 years living in the hell that he's lived I think will be very very difficult. There's a culture shock, a whole load of things that he's going to need help with."

But she said the end of the campaign won't leave a void in her life, admitting: "I've got plenty of things in my life, I've got a huge family, lots of friends, lots of interests.

"I'm still working alongside Amnesty International to do the death penalty work.

"I don't think the death sentence has got a place in this society at all."

Karen got involved with Kenny when she ready about another Englishman who had been executed in the States.
She became interested in campaigning against the death penalty and wrote to Kenny in prison.

She said: "It just went from there.

"I found out about his case, I found out more and more and I was absolutely appalled.

"That took over a period of years because we'd been working very closely together on the case and it just happened.

"It was phone calls and visits obviously but it was no contact visits so you just talk, a lot of talking and a lot of letter writing. He was always behind glass.

"It's just one of those things that happened and it happened in the course of running the campaign and it's something that may be shouldn't of happened but it just did."

At the hearing Cynthia Collins' aunt Valerie Binkley broke down as she read a statement, telling Kenny he would "burn in hell."

Speaking on TV show This Morning, Karen said: "I understand that she was very upset but that should not have been allowed to happen. That was not a murder trial. That was a hearing where the arson and the murder had been dropped and she should not have been allowed to do that.

"Kenny knew that was going to happen but we were told it was the little girl's dad who was actually going to do it and he was very anxious about that. He knew he couldn't say anything."

By Natasha Kleanthous, Jan 08 2008 © Copyright 2008 - Showbiz Spy

Category Offbeat News

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