THE family of one of the two men convicted for the 1994 Risca taxi office murders has vowed to continue their fight to clear him.

Today is John Roden's 37th birthday - and his mother (pictured) says she is convinced he has been wrongfully imprisoned for more than seven years.

Roden and Michael Attwooll were both convicted of murdering Gerald Stevens and Christine Rees at the Western Valley Taxi office in Risca - and have been serving a life sentence since 1995.

Now Roden's lawyers are seeking a judicial review of the decision by the Criminal Cases Review Commission not to refer his case back to the Court of Appeal.

The commission spent around two years looking at the case before announcing that decision last year.

"We are hoping and praying that we will get this judicial review," his mother Mary Roden told the Argus yesterday. She has offered a £2,000 reward for information about the murders, but this has proved fruitless.

"They want fresh evidence and we are doing our best to find it, but we can't," she said. The case against her son relied on the evidence of a convicted criminal, who claimed Roden had confessed to the murders and asked him to dispose of the murder weapon.

The small town of Risca was shocked by the double murder in the Western Valley taxi offices in May 1994. Gerald Stevens, Michael Attwooll's partner in the business, was shot in the head while his lover Christine Rees, a 37-year-old mother of four, was shot and hacked with a machete.

Newport crown court was told Attwooll plotted the murders and got Roden to help as there was hostility over the effect the affair was having on the business.

South Wales Liberty is supporting Roden's application for a judicial review, believing him to be the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Spokesman Dennis Eady said legal representation is also now being sought for Michael Attwooll, who has not been represented since his trial.

"We feel the system is flawed in having to get new evidence to get an appeal," he said. "There is overwhelming doubt about the whole thing - but nothing new is coming up."