He said he decided to get Glenn to do it because he was the biggest

He said he decided to get Glenn to do it because he was the biggest."He said he wasn't bothered how it was done - just to make it look as though it was a burglary."The three defendants allegedly murdered Mrs Howells, 48, because she controlled their lives and they stood to inherit her substantial estate. The court had earlier been told that Mr Howells had found out about his wife's 12-year affair with his best friend.The case continues.. An art expert, disturbed by an untidy skirt in a painting by Thomas Gainsborough, embarked on a piece of sleuthing which has resulted in a major discovery. Susan Foister, a senior curator at the National Gallery in London, used the latest X-ray technology to "strip down" the picture by the 18th-century British artist.

The X-ray revealed a completely different painting underneath. Ms Foister is organising the exhibition "Young Gainsborough" which opens at the National Gallery tomorrow .She said yesterday that she had become worried about one picture lent for the exhibition, Couple in a Landscape, which she had viewed often at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in south-east London."I was suspicious of the Dulwich picture," she said yesterday. "The skirt of the woman didn't look like Gainsborough's dresses. Normally in his paintings you see the folds beautifully portrayed and the light falling on the satiny-looking skirts In this one the folds aren't neat. There's a lack of logicality in the way the highlights are shown."I thought it would be interesting to check it out, so I had the painting brought in early and X-rayed it The X-ray that came out was quite extraordinary. For a start, Gainsborough had worked on it the other way up, and when we turned it round, we saw there was a painting of the head and shoulders of a woman in a hat and dress. "We could see that the lips of this woman were partly shading the dress in the later picture."Ms Foister says that the earlier picture is "without doubt a Gainsborough", though she does not know who the subject is.

She says that it is possible that Gainsborough was commissioned to do the earlier painting and the commission was then cancelled. In the interests of economy, Gainsborough might have used the same canvas for the later work."It's an impressive portrait of a strong-jawed woman in a beautiful dress," says Ms Foister. "And it's another painting by Gainsborough from a very interesting period in his career, the early period. It's something art historians will be rather excited about.". The Bishop of Liverpool has criticised the leading political parties in the run up to the general election. The Right Rev David Sheppard, who retires later this year, said yesterday: "I feel that the whole debate is being conducted at the level of comfortable Britain.

"We need some long term changes - not just for one election. I think this issue of unemployment and the future of work with new technology and everything else is one of the great human questions. "Unemployment isn't the only reason for poverty but if you want to get people out of poverty the first thing you want to do is to make it possible for them to have a decent job."So much of Britain just wring their hands and assume there is nothing we can do about it and I hope we are going to say there are some things we can do about it."Here is a deep sickness in our society and nobody ought to think we can heal it without some sacrifice on the behalf of those who are more comfortable. None of the politicians [is] saying that at the moment so perhaps the church ought to.". Michael Mansfield QC, the defence barrister who last week alleged involvement of guards at Whitemoor prison in the escape of five IRA prisoners and an armed robber, yesterday said he would be handing "new evidence" on the case to Michael Howard, the Home Secretary. Pointing to involvement of "forces" who wanted to ensure the IRA ceasefire of 1994 would not work, Mr Mansfield was replying to critics who urged him to deliver any new information. These include Mr Howard and Sir John Woodcock, who conducted an inquiry into the Whitemoor break-out. After the collapse of the second trial of the prisoners last week, the Conservative MP Ian Bruce increased pressure on Mr Howard to order a new review when he demanded a police investigation into suggestions of a link between the break-out and a missing prison guard.Mr Bruce demanded that the Home Office look into the disappearance of Peter Curran, an officer at the Cambridgeshire jail "Mr Curran's disappearance .. could be connected with the break-out.

There were things going on he may have been privy to."Last night police said they were independently reviewing their file on Mr Curran and that there had never been evidence to suggest he had been killed or committed suicide. Two days before he was last seen in March 1995 he was suspended; he had allegedly been supplying toiletries to prisoners. Yesterday his wife, Christine, who contacted Mr Bruce, told the BBC: "I refuse to believe the Prison Service ... have not considered the far-reaching implications of corruption being uncovered which may in turn lead to the discovery of something very serious having happened to him."The death of another officer, Marcia Whitehurst, also raised concern She died last week when her car left the road near Wisbech She had been going to the trial in Greenwich. Police confirmed they were treating it as "a routine fatal accident".Last week, after the second collapse of the escape trial, again following prejudicial publicity, Mr Mansfield said key questions remained unanswered. Evidence from cameras around Whitemoor's perimeter had never been found The missing time pointed to collusion of officers. He said the prisoners did not have time to cut the fencing without alarms being set off; the wire must have been cut for them.Paul Magee, 48, Gilbert McNamee, 36, Liam O'Duibhir, 34, Peter Sherry, 31, and Liam McCotter, 33, and the armed robber Andrew Russell, 34, were charged with breaking out and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life and with intent to break prison.