Kenny Richey says he is closer to ending his own life than ever before

Armed police were called after an incident at Richey's flat in Edinburgh. Today, he accused the police and newspapers of hounding him - but also admitted that he had "let people down" since he was freed from Death Row.

Seven months after he was freed from Death Row, Kenny Richey is in a bad way. He's 43 but looks far older. He has heart trouble, diabetes and emphesema and smokes 60 a day. He is not working. The money from his big media deals is long gone.

He said: "I contemplate suicide every day...I'm that close. Because people won't let me alone. The police and newspapers keep on hounding me and making it worse."

Richey was freed after his murder conviction was overturned on appeal and he pled guitly to lesser charges. He came back to Edinburgh, the city he called home but hadn't seen for twenty years, and has struggled ever since. On Friday, Richey injured himself at his flat and ran off when paramedics were called.

He said: "I don't trust anybody in uniform and I didn't want them to think I'd tried to commit suicide and lock me up. I climbed on to a roof and then there were all these police with rifles."

Richey was arrested for breach of the peace and a night in the cells brought back bad memories. The charges have since been dropped. Richey says everything that happens to him is blown out of proportion.

There have been quite a few misunderstandings over the last seven months. Yesterday he was beaten up in a street fight.

People are trying to help Kenny Richey, but unless something changes, it is difficult to
imagine how this story can have a happy ending

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