A NORTH-East woman accused of killing a family friend in Spain has protested her innocence in a letter.

Anne-Marie Monteith, 47, and her husband Richard, who recently moved to Spain from Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, were arrested by police in Malaga after Diana Dyson was found dead in her Torremolinos home.

Mrs Dyson, 63, had been beaten, stabbed and asphyxiated, and following the discovery of her body, 179 items of her jewellery were found at the Monteiths' home.

After spending two days being quizzed by police, the couple were remanded in a Malaga prison, although they have yet to be charged.

In a letter to the Sunday Sun newspaper, Mrs Monteith says that on the day of the alleged murder, she was in Gibraltar with her son Steven, 21, and family friend Brian Smith.

She writes: "I can honestly say we were not at her apartment at the time she was killed. We can prove this, honestly."

Mrs Monteith fled the country with her husband and three of her four children after failing to appear at Newcastle Crown Court to face a deception charge, in May 2000. She is alleged to have fraudulently obtained power of attorney over her mother, Susannah Easter, and Northumbria Police are attempting to have her returned to Britain, through Interpol.