CHURCH bosses have come under fire after it emerged they had hired out St Edmundsbury Cathedral's lecture room for a campaign to free a man convicted of murdering a 37-year-old woman.

Laurence Cawley

CHURCH bosses have come under fire after it emerged they had hired out St Edmundsbury Cathedral's lecture room for a campaign to free a man convicted of murdering a 37-year-old woman.

Kevin Nunn was jailed three years ago for the murder of Fornham St Martin resident Dawn Walker, whose body was found in a burned state with her hair cut off next to the River Lark at Fornham Park, near Bury St Edmunds.

Nunn, who used to live in Woolpit, maintains his innocence and it has now emerged a public meeting organised by the Kevin Nunn Campaign will be held in the lecture room at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, in Bury.

The room, which costs �93.50 per afternoon to hire, is hired out by St Edmundsbury Cathedral Enterprises Ltd. Under the terms and conditions of hire, no mention is made as to what the room can be used for or by whom.

Miss Walker's sister Sheena said she could not believe the cathedral had hired the room out for the campaign and said she would be complaining to senior church staff.

She said: “I think it is highly inappropriate for the Church of England to be hiring out a room for something like this. We find it difficult to come to terms with the fact that the Church of England could condone this.

“Kevin Nunn's guilty verdict could be considered an act of God.”

A spokeswoman for the Cathedral said: “St Edmundsbury Cathedral makes its conference facilities available for public and private meetings to commercial, private and charitable organisations.

“The hire agreement in no way implies endorsement by the Cathedral of the activities or opinions of the hirer.''

Key speakers at the meeting include the author and documentary producer Bob Woffinden, Sandra Lean, author of No Smoke: The Shocking Truth About British Justice and Jane Hickman, Nunn's lawyer and the secretary of the Criminal Appeal Lawyers Association.

Ms Hickman said: “This case concerns me greatly. Suspicion always falls on a partner in such a case but the actual evidence against Kevin Nunn was weak.

“It comes down to an identification made from a fairly fleeting glimpse in poor light.”

The meeting will take place at 2pm on October 3 at the lecture room, Cathedral Centre, Bury.