A PRISONER has been cleared of hatching a plot to kill his wife from his cell.

Andrew McGarry was found not guilty of arranging a £50,000 plan to have wife Heather and neighbour Andrea Leighton murdered while he was serving an eight-year sentence at HMP Forest Bank.

The jury did convict him of three counts of encouraging or assisting the commission of offences, in relation to three fellow prison inmates, James Plaice, Colin Brady and Michael Jefferson.

The 39-year-old architect is already in custody, after being jailed for eight years in February last year for driving his car into the house occupied by Heather in Victoria Road, Horwich, after his marriage had broken down.

He said he had ploughed his Vauxhall Zafira, which burst into flames, into the house in July, 2012, in an attempt to kill himself.

Judge Timothy Clayson sent the jury out at 11.20am yesterday after finishing his summing up and they returned verdicts on all counts in four-and-a-half hours.

The five counts McGarry, formerly of Croyde Close, Harwood, was accused of related to the period between February 1 and June 10 last year.

Judge Timothy Clayson said: " Before sentence, I want an assessment to the level of risk that the defendant poses as things stand.

"Therefore I think I will be assisted by both a pre-sentence report and psychiatric report.

"This has been quite a challenging case for you as a jury to deal with.

"Everyone is grateful to the sacrifices you make as jurors to make our criminal justice system work."

McGarry will be sentenced for the three counts of encouraging offences on January 6 at Bolton Crown Court.

The Crown's case was that McGarry had offered up £50,000 to have Mr Plaice arrange a house fire, killing Mrs McGarry, Mrs Leighton and his three children.

The prosecution claimed that he had earlier offered Mr Plaice £20,000 to kill his wife, as well as £500 to set fire to the house and £100 to smash some windows.

He had given Mr Plaice detailed plans of his ex's property, alarm and safe codes and the location of valuables he claimed a burglar could steal in payment for committing the crime, it was argued.

Mr Plaice said he went to Mr Brady with concerns, and he then reported McGarry to the prison authorities.

McGarry was subsequently moved to Wymott jail where it was said he tried to recruit a third prisoner Mr Jefferson.

But, McGarry said in his evidence that other inmates had stolen documents from his cell and used them to falsely allege he was trying to murder his wife.

He said he was vulnerable and had mental anxiety problems when he was befriended by prisoners Mr Plaice and Mr Brady.

He claimed he drew detailed plans of his Victoria Road property to start devising a future home extension.

But the plans were later found in Mr Brady’s cell, along with notes about the security system at the house and its address, plus a list detailing offences which the Crown alleged McGarry was attempting to recruit people to carry out.

McGarry said he thought Brady and Plaice were acting as "listeners" to his problems, but instead they started to bully him and fabricate allegations about him because he was regarded by other inmates as a “nonce”.