WITH tears in her eyes the girlfriend of murderer Michael Clarke has told the Wiltshire Times she will stand by her man.

Abbey Hallam, 26, of Cavendish Drive, Trowbridge, visited Clarke on Saturday, two days after he was found guilty of killing his parents. The couple have been writing to each other for more than a year and the day he was sentenced, Clarke wrote that he "fought for the truth but lost".

He thanked Ms Hallam for her support through the trial and said how he had "so many dreams, so many plans". On December 6 2004 Clarke, 21, stabbed his 70-year-old father Milroy and mother Joan, 56, to death at their home in Berryfield Park, Melksham.

He then headed to London with friends to watch a rock concert before returning home in the early hours of December 7 and pretending to discover their bloodied bodies. Ms Hallam said: "All the different opinions of different people doesn't change my opinion and how I feel about him. "I do love him and will stand by him through all of this. "When I saw him on Saturday, Michael was more worried about everyone else than himself. "He was not the Michael that I normally go and see. "I don't think that he could believe he had been found guilty. "He has still got support from his friends and his brother Andrew. "That Friday when I heard, I didn't think that I would make it through the day."

Ms Hallam said she didn't believe the evidence added up and was 100 per cent convinced Clarke was innocent. "I know Michael didn't do it and I will always stand by the fact that he didn't do it. "I have never had to ask him if he did what he was accused of doing. I know Michael. He wouldn't be capable of it. "My mum and dad know about the situation and my mum was with me the day of the verdict.

"I didn't go to the trial I don't think anybody that loves somebody could stand there while that person is made out to be some kind of monster which they're not. "It is horrible to sit and read everything that was said in court. I'm putting a lot of trust in him but can't see for a minute that he did it. How could somebody murder two people and get out of the house without any marks on them?"

Ms Hallam met Clarke over the internet through mutual friends in the summer of 2003. They had chatted online for more than a year but had never met. The first time they came face to face was after Clarke had been arrested and charged with his parents' murder. "I never had the bottle to meet him face to face. It was easier just to talk online plus he had a girlfriend so it was difficult.

"I wish I'd had the courage to meet him now.

"I had to go to prison to meet him for the first time but I had written to him before I went.

"It was the strangest thing I have ever had to do. "I don't bother with the papers so I didn't know anything about the murders until January. The first I knew about it was when two officers came to speak to me because they had seen I had been using the messenger site. "I didn't believe for a minute that Michael had done anything."

Clarke was initially held in a prison in Reading before being moved to Horfield in Bristol. Ms Hallam and Clarke have written to each other frequently over the last year and she said he often talks about his mum and dad and the time they shared together.

Speaking after Clarke was jailed for 28 years, she said: "I feel really really bad. Waiting for 28 years is not what I had planned. "But this isn't about me, I have to be there for Michael. I never planned for my life to be visiting, writing letters and phone calls but that is all I can do."