A BURY Grammar School pupil has been paying particular attention to the Louise Woodward trial in America.

Emma Purcell, who was 18 on Monday, found out she was accepted as an au pair in the USA by an agency on the same day Cheshire teenager Louise was found guilty of murdering baby Matthew Eappen.

Emma, of Hereford Drive, Prestwich, accepts that after the well-publicised, televised trial things are unlikely to be the same again.

"I still intend to go to America as an au pair, but I realise that I have to be very careful now," Emma said.

"I feel very sorry for Louise, I think she is innocent. And I feel that all au pairs will have a slur cast on them, but you have to realise that it is just one isolated case out of the thousands of girls who work as au pairs every year."

Emma is studying for her A-levels and hopes to go to America next September to work for a year before going to university where she intends to take Americn Studies.

Graham Evans has set up a Louise Woodward web site on the Internet and is urging people to send messages of support to the teenager.

Mr Evans (31), of Sion Street, Radcliffe, believes Woodward is innocent and is hoping Judge Hiller Zobel will overturn the verdict. He will make his decision known on the Internet.

Mr Evans's Louise Woodward web site address is: http://www.warriors.ndirect.co.uk/louiswoodward

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