CONVICTED killer Winston Silcott has briefly tasted freedom on at least one day out from prison preparing for his future release.

Silcott was convicted in 1987 of murdering Sunderland-born police officer Keith Blakelock during the Broadwater Farm riots in Tottenham, north London, in 1985.

But he was cleared by the Court of Appeal six years later and received £50,000 damages from the Metropolitan Police for wrongful conviction.

But he has remained in prison, serving a life sentence for a murder committed in 1984, the year before the death of PC Blakelock.

Silcott, who was told he would become eligible for parole after serving 14 years of the sentence for the killing of boxer Anthony Smith, has now been behind bars for 16 years.

It emerged he was allowed out of Stocken Prison, Leicestershire, to mingle with the public earlier this month.

A Prison Service spokeswoman confirmed last night he has been out on a "familiarisation visit", accompanied by at least one prison officer.

She said: "The visits are to see how prisoners react to outside life in preparation for a move to an open prison, for example."

But she refused to confirm if it was Silcott's first escorted visit in the run-up to a parole hearing.

PC Blakelock's widow, Elizabeth, was unavailable for comment last night. Since the case, she has remarried but is still living in the North-East.