PUB arsonist Keith Willoughby is appealing against his conviction for the killing of taxi driver Derek Drury.

Willoughby, 53, of Wincheap, Canterbury, was jailed for 12 years following his convictions for arson and manslaughter.

But he has been allowed to keep £200,000 from the sale of the Old Locomotive site in Station Road West, Canterbury, where Mr Drury died in a massive explosion.

Mr Drury’s sister, Denise Cutress, criticised the judge’s ruling allowing Willoughby to keep the money.

“I think it’s wrong,” she said. “It is profiting from his crime and I would have preferred to see it given to a charity.”

Willoughby’s lawyers, Godfrey, Davis and Waitt, of Ramsgate, have now revealed that an appeal against the conviction had been lodged.

Mrs Cutress said: “It’s another hurdle we have to overcome. But we’ve been there before and we can do it again. We just have to hope we get the right result again.”

Willoughby, who was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court on Wednesday last week, has consistently denied any responsibility for the blast that destroyed the Old Locomotive in August, 2002.

He blamed squatters who had been living in the pub since he shut it in 2000.

Danny Salter, an associate of Willoughby’s, is convinced of the former landlord’s innocence.

Mr Salter, 71, said: “He had money in the bank and didn’t need to do this. When I was visiting him in prison, he said ‘Danny, I can’t understand the jury’. Keith said there had been squatters in there and they had primed it with petrol all over the place.”

Mr Salter, who lives in Blean, has visited Willoughby three times in Elmley Prison, Sheppey.

He added: “Keith is convinced it’s all going to come out in the end.”