A MAN who has served six years of a life sentence for killing his wife will today launch a bid to overturn his murder conviction.

At Newcastle Crown Court in February 1997, Philip Rowland was convicted of murdering his wife Linda, 37, a mother-of-two, at their home in Walker, Tyneside.

Rowland, in his forties, stabbed her through the neck, chest and back after a row over their crumbling marriage. After the killing he wrapped her body in a duvet.

He was refused permission to appeal against his conviction in June 1997.

But the case has now been referred back to the Appeal Court by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, a watchdog that investigates suspected miscarriages of justice.

His lawyers are expected to argue that the conviction should be reduced to manslaughter on grounds that his wife's sexual taunts drove him to kill her. She is said to have mocked him about a rare sexual condition which prevented him from having a normal sex life.