THIS is the innocent man evil Nicola Faughey framed for a killing he did NOT commit.

Sammy Burke, a close friend of victim Joanne Whitelegg, says he has been left a shattered man after the 16-year-old implicated him in the crime.

After Faughey made the allegations, police swooped on Sammy's mother's home in Tennyson Road, New Bury, just hours after Joanne's body had been discovered.

At about 3am on February 15, 2000, Sammy says he was pulled from his bed and handcuffed by officers as the police continued their hunt for Joanne's killer.

Faughey had told police that Sammy, a close friend of Joanne's for two years, was the man whom she had seen stab the 35-year-old woman in an attempt to throw them off the track.

Sammy, of Dyson Close, Farnworth, told how he would spend evenings with Joanne chatting, watching television and enjoying a drink before walking her home to make sure she was safe.

Breaking down in tears, he said of Faughey: "I think she's a piece of rubbish. She just picked me at random and I only met her five times. It was sheer hell being locked up in a cell and then having to be interviewed.

"I even had my nails scraped and a piece of my hair cut off as well as having my fingerprints and palm prints taken."

The 46-year-old man's mother also had forensic officers visit her home, with officers taking away a set of kitchen knives while he remained under suspicion.

But Sammy says he bears no grudges against the police officers who had acted on Faughey's fake claims.

Sammy, a former loom weaver who has also worked in South African docks and harbours, says his health has suffered since the incident.

And his mum, Lillian, aged 72, says the experience has broken her son, adding: "I can't think of anything worse for such a sensitive man to have to endure."