HE WAS jailed for life for the brutal murder Hampshire pensioner Georgina Edmonds.

Now, eight months after starting a 30-year prison sentence, Matthew Hamlen could be just days away from a potential breakthrough in the campaign to clear his name.

Three High Court judges sitting on Friday will decide if he should be granted leave to appeal against his conviction.

Following his six-week trial at Winchester Crown Court Hamlen was found guilty of murdering 77-year-old Mrs Edmonds, who was battered to death in her own home after being tortured for her PIN number.

He has always protested his innocence and his family say they remain convinced that someone else was responsible for the widow’s death.

As reported in the Daily Echo, they are offering a £25,000 reward for information leading to Hamlen’s conviction being quashed.

The campaign will receive a major boost if the 36-year-old father of one is granted leave to appeal.

In a statement his family said: “Matthew’s campaign team and supporters remain confident of a positive outcome at the hearing on Friday.

“We believe the basis for the appeal to be compelling in favour of Matthew.

“We hope this will prove to be an important step in our efforts to prove Matthew’s innocence of this heinous crime.”

Four years ago Hamlen was cleared of killing Mrs Edmonds at her riverside cottage at Brambridge, near Eastleigh, in 2008.

But the Hampshire electrician was dramatically re-arrested in 2014 and following a relaxation of the double jeopardy law, which had previously prevented anyone being tried for the same crime twice.

At the second trial Hamlen was convicted of murdering Mrs Edmonds, who was stabbed 37 times before being bludgeoned with a rolling pin.

Jurors were shown CCTV footage of an unidentifiable man, said by the prosecution to be Hamlen, trying to obtain £200 from a cash machine using the pensioner’s debit card.

But Hamlen’s family claim the wrong man was jailed for Mrs Edmonds’s murder.

Launching the reward offer two months ago his campaign team said the man filmed using the ATM device was taller and stockier than Hamlen.

They also disputed new DNA evidence that was produced at the second trial and helped the prosecution secure a conviction.

Hamlen’s spokesman cited flaws in the system, including cases of DNA being transferred from one person to another via a third party.

He added: “A number of convictions in this country and aboard have been overturned because the DNA evidence relied upon was not sound.”