BEFRIENDING a prisoner on death row changed the life of retired college teacher Swithin Fry far more than he had expected.

Mr Fry will be telling his story of how and why it did at the Bridport Friends’ Meeting House this month.

Mr Fry, whose sister Veronica Ziegler is a well-known Bridport fundraiser, started writing to the 43-year-old after answering an advert in The Big Issue magazine.

Inmate Timothy Coleman, who was sentenced to death in Ohio for aggravated murder 16 years ago, is convicted of killing a prosecution witness in a drugs case against him.

After six months of writing, Mr Fry, 64, visited his jailed penpal at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution, in Ohio.

Mr Fry, from Gloucestershire, said: “In Tim’s very first letter he wrote a lot about being innocent, but back then, the mere thought of murder, a real murder not a fiction murder, was too much for me. So I more or less ignored the subject, and replied about mundane matters…like the weather or somesuch.

“However, six months later I was visiting the US with my wife and I thought this was my chance to visit Tim.

“When I went into the prison, I was thinking that the American penal system couldn’t be too far wrong and that Tim was probably guilty despite what his letters said.

“I was with him the whole day.

“We talked non-stop and of course, he talked about being innocent.

“I came out 80 per cent convinced.

“Now I’m 100 per cent.

“In our letters we had developed quite a strong friendship, so from having a penpal on death row to having a friend on death row who I believed to be innocent was quite something.

“Tim is asking for a retrial so that new evidence can be submitted.

“My hope is that if I can raise publicity and signatures about his case that it will add to the chance of a retrial. So I’m hoping my talks will do that. Eventually, I’m aiming to do a small tour in Ohio.”

His talk Dear Tim: Echoes from Death Row is at Bridport Friends’ Meeting House, 95 South Street, on Saturday, August 31, 7.30pm.

Entrance is free.