BLIND Yvonne Sleightholme has finally moved to an open prison near York - a year after the Evening Press revealed that a Parole Board blunder had kept her locked up unfairly.

In a letter to the Evening Press, she thanked the paper for its investigation into the error, saying she felt sure her move from medium-security Styal Prison to Askham Grange would otherwise have taken much longer.

She said that as she had expected, she was finding the jail very unfamiliar and as a result was feeling "very insecure."

However, she had been assigned a mobility trainer from social services, who was already coming in to help her find her way around.

"My main concern about mobility is being addressed. What follows will be the test of time."

Sleightholme was jailed in 1991 after being convicted of shooting dead a Ryedale farmer's wife, Jayne Smith, in a farmyard at Salton, near Malton, in 1989. She has always continued to protest her innocence.

The judge recommended she should serve ten years but, despite exemplary behaviour throughout her time inside, she has now been in jail almost 14 years. Her supporters claim her release has been consistently delayed because of her refusal to confess to the crime.

The Press revealed last spring that the board's decision in the autumn of 2002 to keep her locked up in medium-security conditions was based on inaccurate information.

For example, while the board believed she had failed to complete work on enhanced thinking skills, the paper obtained documents proving that she had successfully completed such a course in August 2002.

The board then announced it was to re-examine her case, and last November it recommended a transfer to open conditions.

The move to Askham Grange, at Askham Richard, means her aged parents, who live near the Yorkshire coast, will now find it easier to visit her.

Updated: 09:29 Saturday, April 10, 2004