A man convicted of a Coventry murder is fighting to obtain original trial transcripts in a new attempt to get his case referred to the Court of Appeal.

Ex-financial adviser Timothy Caines, serving a life sentence for the murder of Earlsdon solicitor Colin Hickman, has prepared a 16-page report in the hope of persuading the Criminal Cases Review Commission to reopen his case.

Mr Hickman was killed in the hallway of his home in Shaftesbury Road, Earlsdon. Caines was found guilty at Birmingham Crown Court, in May 1995, of stabbing him to death.

Caines wants access to courtroom testimony by Mr Hickman's partner Vera Philip-Griffiths, pathologist Timothy Ashworth, and the summing-up of the trial judge Mrs Justice Ebsworth.

He claims that without the transcripts he is unable to mount a full appeal case and that his human rights will have been violated.

The CCRC has already refused Caines leave to appeal and he is now attempting to get that ruling overturned.

He said in his submission: "I am not on a fishing expedition. I am into my eighth year of incarceration and I know my case - I have made many mistakes in the past, representing myself. All I am asking now, after seven years plus of trying to prove my innocence, is to allow me access to the transcripts of my trial, to enable me to prove my evidence and my innocence."

In a new development and after many months of fighting, Caines's legal team has obtained details of phone calls made by Mr Hickman and Mrs Philip-Griffiths, who was making one call immediately prior to the killing.

But the bill for March 1, 1994, the day of the murder, is missing and Caines's solicitor must make another application to BT for its release.

Caines also believes that under human rights legislation he did not receive a fair trial. He was convicted by only nine jurors, on a majority verdict.

Officials at the Miscarriages of Justice Organisation have assigned a case worker to his appeal bid, which he is preparing from his cell at Leicester Prison.

One of the members of the freed Birmingham six today pledged to help free a man convicted of a Coventry murder seven years ago.

The case of Timothy Caines, jailed for the murder of Coventry solicitor Colin Hickman, was being raised at the House of Commons as Paddy Hill launched a group committed to fighting for the rights of prisoners.

Former prisoner Mr Hill, who was released 10 years ago today after being cleared of the 1975 Birmingham pub bombings, was speaking at the high-profile launch of the Miscarriages of Justice group.

The group is hoping to get support for Caines who is serving a life sentence, at Leicester Prison, for the March 1994 murder of the Earlsdon lawyer.

The event was addressed by leading criminologists and victims of wrongful convictions.

Confirming that he believes Caines has grounds for an appeal, Mr Hill said: “We are looking at his case, the background, and looking at helping the legal team involved.”

Caines has always protested his innocence over the brutal stabbing of solicitor Mr Hickman in the hallway of his home, in Shaftesbury Road, Earlsdon.

While not denying that he was present prior to the killing, he claims he was forced, at gunpoint, to lead the real murderer to Mr Hickman's home.

In an appeal made in the Evening Telegraph, he has urged people who may have seen him running away from Shaftesbury Road, past Canley railway station, while the solicitor would still have been alive, to come forward.

“The Criminal Cases Review Commission is not doing the job it is supposed to do - they don't investigate the cases they should do,” said Mr Hill.

But the girlfriend of Caines's victim, Vera Phillip-Griffiths, today refused to comment on the killer's campaign.

It is believed the former teacher, who at one stage supported Caines's claims of innocence, now wants to move on with her life.

A convicted killer hopes a new appeal for witnesses might prove his innocence, seven years after the doorstep murder of a Coventry solicitor.

Former financial consultant Timothy Caines, who is serving a life sentence for the killing of Earlsdon lawyer Colin Hickman, has written to the Evening Telegraph from his cell at Leicester Prison.

Divorced Mr Hickman, aged 55, was stabbed to death in the hall of his Shaftesbury Road home in 1994 .

Caines, a business associate, was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court in May 1995 and has since made several unsuccessful attempts to get his conviction overturned.

He is convinced someone saw him running from the murder scene, while his victim was still probably alive.

In his letter, Caines says: "I was not party to that murder. I never laid a hand on that man. I was not even present when the murder took place."

He insists that the real killer forced him at gunpoint to go to Mr Hickman's home. Caines claims he left before the fatal attack.

He says at least three people could have seen him passing Canley station, between 6.20pm and 6.30pm on March 1, 1994. He is urging a jogger and two people who were standing outside the Farmhouse pub, to come forward.

His lawyer, Susannah Arthur, is investigating the possibility of taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Caines was convicted by the jury on a nine-to-one majority. Mrs Arthur believes that in a murder trial this can be allowed only with the agreement of both prosecution and defence.

Mr Hickman's common-law wife, Vera Phillip-Griffiths, who was upstairs while he was being attacked in the hall, is convinced Caines was not responsible for the murder.

In her evidence, she said she saw a white man in the aftermath of the stabbing. Timothy Caines is black.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission has already rejected bids to reopen inquiries.

Police have refused to release phone records - Mrs Phillip-Griffiths was calling a friend at the time of the killing - because they consider the case is closed.