TWO men who accused former Saints boss Dave Jones of child abuse were lying to claim compensation, fresh evidence shows.

Four serving prisoners made statements to Mr Jones's lawyers, saying the men boasted in jail that they were going to commit perjury.

The evidence would have been heard at his trial had it not collapsed on Tuesday last week after three of the original six accusers failed to turn up.

Mr Jones lived under the shadow of child abuse allegations for 18 months before he was cleared by a judge of all 14 charges. Now he says he wished the jury had been given the chance to hear all the evidence.

"They would have realised what they were dealing with - the lowest of the low, condemned even by other criminals for being prepared to convict an innocent man for 40 pieces of silver," he said.

Two defence witnesses, Gary Winter and Paul Currie, reportedly described discussions in Garth prison, Lancashire, with one of the accusers. Currie, serving seven years for robbery, said an accuser "said he was making it up because he needed money for the future when he got out - he was adamant that he hadn't been abused."

The abuse allegations all related to a children's home in the North West.

The new evidence is expected to add to concern about the method of investigating alleged sexual abuse where police try to support a first allegation by tracing hundreds of former inmates and asking them if they were abused.