A FATHER who appealed for a retrial a year after being convicted of a New York street shooting has had his request thrown out.

A Brooklyn judge has ruled that there are no grounds to hear a new trial for Manzoor Qadar, of Blackburn.

Now the father-of-six will hear his fate in a matter of days when he will be sentenced for the killing.

He faces life imprisonment after being found guilty last April of conspiring in a 'hitman' shooting which killed his cousin Shaukat Parvez seven years ago.

He was found guilty of three serious crimes including using a firearm for murder-for-hire.

Defence teams working in New York on behalf of the 42-year-old asked the judge to overturn the findings of the Brooklyn court based on new evidence.

But the request has been denied on the grounds of insufficient new evidence.

Samantha Schreiber, assistant US attorney, said: "The request for the retrial has been denied and the sentencing will go ahead as previously planned. The court will be called for June 10." Qadar, of Holland Street, Blackburn, has always protested his innocence.

The case has been dealt with by several different lawyers who have tried to uncover new information.

And it has been opened and adjourned more than five times over the past twelve months.

Qadar, who formerly worked as a nurse at Queen's Park Hospital, has been held at an FBI-run Metropolitan detention centre in Brooklyn since his extradition from England in 2001.

According to US probation documents, Qadar was caught up in a bitter saga over an arranged marriage in Pakistan which culminated in the killing of Shaukat Parvez by a single bullet wound to the chest.

Qadar sends regular letters to his family in Holland Street, where his wife of 19 years, Fehmeeda, and his brother Khalid wait for news with his children aged 17, 14, 13, 12, 7 and 5.