A CONVICTED killer was found not guilty of murdering his daughter when the case against him dramatically fell apart.

Geoffrey Porter, aged 43, was in the dock at Manchester Crown Court charged with the murder of his 11-year-old daughter, Phyllis.

The judge allowed the prosecution to reveal to the jury that Porter was currently serving a life sentence for murdering Bolton prostitute Carly Bateman.

But following evidence from the defendant's wife, Anne Marie Porter - the judge directed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty on the charge of killing his daughter.

Phyllis was found dead, face down on a pillow, at the family home in Kitt Green Road, Marsh Green, Wigan, by her mother in November, 1996.

An inquest failed to solve the mystery of her death but, five years later, following the murder of 17-year-old Carly Bateman, police reopened the inquiry.

Carly was found naked in an alleyway, off Crawford Avenue, Bolton, in the early hours of Sunday, November 11, 2001. She had been strangled. Porter was found guilty of her murder in December 2003. This week the prosecution alleged that Porter suffocated Phyllis using a pillow in the early hours of the morning of November 20, 1996, before he went to work.

In her evidence on Tuesday, Mrs Porter said she was in bed and awake on the morning of her daughter's death.

She said the walls in the house were very thin and that she would have heard her husband entering Phyllis's room.

Following the jury's not guilty verdict, Judge Silber concluded: "So far as the defendant is concerned, he goes back to prison to serve his life sentence."