GRAND National winning jockey Richard Guest has outraged the family of a murder victim by planning to use this week's Cheltenham Festival to further the freedom bid of a self-confessed killer.

Supporters of Irish-born jockey Christy McGrath, who is serving a life sentence for murdering former Newcastle United hopeful Gary Walton, will flood the Cheltenham racecourse with leaflets campaigning for his case to be retried.

Mr Guest dedicated his Aintree victory on Red Marauder last year to McGrath, who worked with him at trainer Norman Mason's County Durham yard until the killing in Coundon in July 2000.

If he wins Cheltenham's biggest race - today's Tote Gold Cup - on trainer Henrietta Knight's fancied Lord Noelie, he has told a Sunday newspaper he will grasp the chance to proclaim McGrath's 'innocence.'

But his plans have horrified Mr Walton's family as well as police, who are overwhelmingly convinced that McGrath is guilty.

Mr Walton's sister Sharon Caton said that she and her parents Jennie and Dickie felt powerless to stop McGrath's campaign, which could even see him being put forward 'in absentia' as a candidate in the Irish Republic's general election due later this year.

He also has the support of London MP John McDonnell and one of the wrongly-convicted Birmingham Six, Paddy Hill.

Mrs Caton said: "McGrath is an evil liar. This campaign by his supporters is devastating our family and this has hurt us more than anything else.

"I have never felt so helpless in my life. These people are degrading Gary's memory and there is nothing we can do to stop them. They have ignored all the evidence. I wish photographs of Gary's injuries could be put on the leaflets so they could see what McGrath did to him."

Det Supt Tom Ryan, who led the murder investigation, said: "There seems to be a blind acceptance that what Mr McGrath says is true and I find it astonishing British and Irish MPs, as well as those campaigning on his behalf, appear not to have been made aware of the detail of the case presented in court.

"Mr McGrath was not found guilty of the murder - he pleaded guilty to the charge."