Released inmate: I didn’t kill girl

Once an hour away from execution in Ohio, he is now back in Scotland.

LONDON (AP) — A Scotsman who came within an hour of being executed in Ohio insisted he was an innocent man in an interview with a British Sunday newspaper.

Ken Richey was released from jail in Ohio on Monday after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors. He returned to Scotland on Wednesday.

Richey, 43, spent two decades on death row for starting a fire in which his ex-girlfriend’s daughter, 2-year-old Cynthia Collins, died.

“I did not kill that little girl,” Richey was quoted as saying in an interview published in The People newspaper. “I’m devastated she died but it wasn’t my fault.”

As part of the deal accepted Monday, he pleaded no contest to attempted involuntary manslaughter, child endangering, and breaking and entering related to the fire that killed the 2-year-old. Under the terms of his deal, he made no admission that he had anything to do with causing the fire and was sentenced to the 21 years he had already served.

At the plea hearing in Ohio on Monday, he faced an angry reaction to his plea deal from relatives of the girl.

Pointing at Richey, Cynthia’s aunt Valerie Binklay said: “I want you to know you’ve fooled nobody no more. Nobody. You will burn in hell.”

During the interview in an Edinburgh bar, Richey said he felt little sympathy for the girl’s family, the newspaper wrote.

“I’m an innocent man so if Valerie Binklay and the rest of them want me to fry for something I never did, why should I feel sorry for them?” he was quoted as saying.

He said at times in prison he had felt like cutting his own wrists or throat.

He said he now wants to remarry ex-wife Wendy Amerud, 50, — who divorced him before the fire — and start a new life in Scotland with son, Shaun, 22. He now hopes to be able to live a quiet life.

“I will never be able to forget my past, but all I want is to enjoy the simple things,” he said. “Just feeling the Scottish rain on my face this week has been a joy.”