A CONVICTED child killer who had claimed he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice has died in a North-East prison.

Andrew Pountley, 40, was convicted of the rape and murder of his girlfriend's five-year-old daughter Rosemary McCann in February 1997. He died in his cell at Durham City's Frankland Prison.

Rosemary disappeared from her home in Oldham in January.

Seven weeks later, on March 4, her body was found by police in the corner of a small patch of waste ground.

Pountley was put on trial at Manchester Crown Court and convicted in February 1997.

Mrs Justice Steel gave Pountley two life sentences and said he should serve 25 years.

Pountley insisted he was wrongly convicted and his case was taken up by a Manchester-based campaign group, Innocent.

He is believed to have died of natural causes.

An inquest into his death will open in Chester-le-Street tomorrow.