THE heartbroken wife of a man brutally battered to death has told how she was just “good friends” with his killer.

Stephen Keogh, 45, was found guilty of murdering Kevin Monteith, 42, after confessing he had declared his love for the dead man’s wife, Anne.

Prosecutors said they had been having an “inappropriate relationship” for 18 months and had exchanged 900 texts in the two-and-a-half weeks before Mr Monteith's death.

Keogh, of Lyme Cross Road, Huyton, was jailed for life yesterday after being unanimously convicted of murdering the dad-of-three.

But Mrs Monteith yesterday insisted they had only ever been friends.

In a victim impact statement, she said it was “awful" to discover he was responsible for her husband's death, while she was away on holiday in Dublin.

The paediatric nurse at Whiston Hospital, said she and her husband had been looking forward to their 25th anniversary, but that had been “taken away” by Keogh.

She said: “He murdered Kevin in a vicious and cowardly attack. He gave Kevin no oppor- tunity to defend himself.

“He was left alone to die in the front garden of our home. None of us had the chance to say goodbye.”