A former soldier wrongly jailed for the M50 murder of Marie Wilks is to receive compensation - believed to be £600,000.

Eddie Browning spent six years in jail before his release in 1994 by the Court of Appeal. Judges decided his conviction was unsafe because of evidence kept from his trial by the police.

Mr Browning, from Cwmparc in the Rhondda, plans to use the money to buy a remote farmhouse where he can live with his new wife.

The 47-year-old former Welsh Guardsman, confirmed he was to receive the money, though he declined to give the exact amount. It was his brother, Dale, who said Mr Browning had received a letter from the Home Office quoting the £600,000 figure.

A Home Office spokesman said it was not the department's policy to comment on such cases.

Mr Browning was convicted of murdering pregnant Marie Wilks, 22, who was found dead in 1988 after her car broke down on the M50 near Bushley, Hereford and Worcester. Her throat had been cut.

Mr Browning said he was trying to buy a farm near Llandeilo, west Wales, so he could start afresh with his wife Mererid, 34.

"I am trying to get on with my life," he said. "I just want peace and quiet, it's as simple as that. In a farming community there are people far and few between."

But Mr Browning said the money would not properly compensate him for his six years in prison. "I am still suffering now. You do not come to terms with something like that," he added.