I kept on phoning people just to stay sane until Jonathan got back

I kept on phoning people just to stay sane until Jonathan got back."She has bitter memories of what happened over the next five months as police investigated the killings."On one occasion, they asked me if I would go to the police station with Jonathan. We were separated and I was kept for several hours and given one hell of a time, awful. They said I was ducking and diving their questions and that they were very suspicious of that."They said, 'Where were you that night? If your father cut his finger, you'd be there, so where were you?' They were inferring I didn't care about my parents They said they were suspicious of me. I felt, 'My God, I can't believe I'm hearing this.'"When they said that Jonathan had killed my parents, I told them not to be so ridiculous."But two months later Jones was arrested at their flat "I was with him at the time," says Cheryl "I will never forget it, it was terrible, frightening I went to the door and a lot of policemen came in. They took him into the kitchen and said he was being arrested. He said to me, 'Can you believe this?'"I thought there'd been some awful mistake and he would be released within 24 hours.

I was shocked and upset, but I did believe he would soon be out. Then they came to the house to say he had been charged with the murder of my parents."Jones claimed he had been in Orpington on the day of the murder and had only driven down to south Wales later that night, several hours after the murders, at the request of Cheryl. The prosecution said he had travelled to Wales by train, murdered the couple, and then returned to Orpington. The motive for the murders was said to be the inheritance.After every step of the legal procedures, the arrest, the charges, the magistrates' hearing and the start of the trial itself, Cheryl was convinced that the nightmare would soon end and her lover would be released."I thought the trial could not possibly go ahead," she says, "because there was just no evidence, nothing at all."A fingerprint belonging to Jones had been found on an item of crockery, but as he had visited the house regularly that could, the court was told, have been left at any time.The jury verdict of guilty took two days to reach and surprised many people in court - including the trial judge, who last week voiced his doubts in a letter to the Home Secretary."There was no evidence at all," says Cheryl, "just a lot of suggestions and innuendo. I would really like to say to the jury, 'Excuse me, but on what evidence did you find him guilty? Please put me in the picture, because I certainly don't know'.""Initially, I wanted to die when the verdict came in," she continues, "but then I thought that was not doing Jonathan any good. He is not able to do anything so it is down to me to be constructive."She says the loss of her parents and the imprisonment of Jones has changed her fundamentally. "Before all this happened, I was a quiet, shy sort of person Now I will do anything to get him out of jail.

It has turned me into a real fighter."After the verdict, she immediately offered a £25,000 reward for information about her parents' killer. Some thought she would soon buckle down and accept what had happened, but not a bit of it. She has now abandoned her market research business to lead a fierce campaign to free her lover and put the real killers of her parents behind bars. An appeal has been launched, bail has been applied for and there is now the prospect of a new alibi to support Jones's case that he was in Orpington when the killings were carried out."I couldn't have lived with myself if I had accepted the verdict and left it at that It is dreadful to see Jonathan in there. To see him in the dock and now in prison and to know he is innocent just breaks my heart."My support and belief in his innocence has been 100 per cent all the time He is the kindest person I have ever known. He is very protective, he wouldn't let me lift heavy boxes or anything like that. Even though he is in prison, his major concern is still for me, not himself."She unwraps another mint to soothe her throat ravaged by several days of campaigning "I know Jonathan is innocent.