TWO apparent confessions to a brutal love-triangle murder in Pakistan are genuine, a jury has been told.

A handwriting expert who examined the letters said there was `conclusive evidence' that both had been written by 46-year-old Ian Priddle, who is jointly charged with the killing of his lover's husband, 21-year-old Khurrum Mukhtar.

Sarah Gough said she `formed the view' that divorcee Priddle had been the author after examining other specimens of his writing - including a Christmas card to his girlfriend, Yasira Pervez.

Mrs Gough, however, told the court she could not be certain that what are alleged to be Priddle's signature at the bottom of each letter were in fact his.

She said it had been possible to make comparisons between the body text of the letters and other documents because they were in block capitals, whereas, the signatures were not.

One letter says: "What happened was horrible, but Pervez had nothing to do with it.

"I did this bad thing on my own. May God forgive me."

In the second letter, the writer states: "I was the one who murdered Khurrum Mukhtar. I was the one who stabbed him."

A jury at Manchester Crown Court has been told that Pervez, of Pendle Street, Accrington, and Priddle, of Jubilee Road, Haslingden, hatched a plot to kill Mr Mukhtar because he stood in their way.

Pervez and Mr Mukhtar, who were cousins, had gone through an arranged marriage in Pakistan in 2004, but she then returned to her family home in Lancashire, while he remained there living with his widowed mother.

The plan had been for her to get documents he needed to get a visa so he could join her in Britain. But instead, the court was told, Pervez and Priddle became lovers after meeting at work.

It is alleged that the pair travelled secretly to Pakistan over Christmas 2006 to remove her now-unwanted husband from `the equation'.

The court heard Pervez lured her husband to a hotel room, then arrived with her lover, Priddle.

A man and woman matching their descriptions were seen leaving the hotel hurriedly just minutes before Mr Mukhtar was found in a bedroom, dying from repeated stab wounds.

The couple, who both plead not guilty to murder, concocted a story about being with friends the whole time and denied being anywhere near the murder scene.

Pervez, however, later admitted she had not told the truth when it was clear the story would not hold up. She claimed Priddle had killed her husband and that she had kept quiet about it because he had threatened her.

The court was told the pair flew back to Manchester on a Pakistan International Airlines flight within hours of the killing.

When they landed, they were met by officers from Greater Manchester Police as a result of phone calls between authorities in Britain and Pakistan.

Proceeding