Blind killer seeks appeal

THE CASE of blind murderer Yvonne Sleightholme has been reopened and could go back to the Court of Appeal.An independent body has decided to review Sleightholme's case, only 10 months after former Home Secretary Michael Howard ruled out a new hearing.Sleightholme has been involved in a long battle to clear her name since she was convicted in 1991 of shooting dead her love rival Jayne Smith at Broat's Farm, Salton, near Malton, in 1988.It was alleged she lay in wait for Mrs Smith at the farm, and shot her at point-blank range in the back of the head. The killing came seven months after her rival in love had married farmer William Smith. Mr Justice Waite said at Leeds Crown Court that Sleightholme had killed Mrs Smith in cold blood for revenge, and then set about blackening the name of Mr Smith, the man she had planned to marry two years before the murder.But Sleightholme, then 40, a doctor's receptionist, who went hysterically blind while on remand, has always maintained her innocence, claiming that the killing was carried out by three hit-men.Mr Howard appeared to bring her campaign to a halt when he announced his decision last March, just before he lost the power to refer cases to the appeal court.The Criminal Cases Review Commission was set up shortly afterwards to restore public confidence in the justice system after the Birmingham Six furore.Now the conviction of Sleightholme, of Seamer, near Scarborough, has become one of the first to be taken up by the commission.