OCEAN COLOUR SCENE - FOWLER'S BRUSH WITH DEATH

OCEAN COLOUR SCENE singer SIMON FOWLER was horrified when he discovered a convicted murderer had spoken to him only minutes after ruthlessly stabbing a cyclist to death.

The YOU'VE GOT IT BAD rocker was walking his dog in London's Richmond Park last year (SEP04) when he was approached by an agitated-looking JOHN BARRETT - but he had no idea Barrett had just stabbed cyclist DENIS FINNEGAN to death with a kitchen knife.

Barrett, who has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, was found guilty of murder last month (22MAR05) and sentenced to life imprisonment by an Old Bailey judge.

Fowler recalls, "I remember looking at my watch; it was about quarter past 10. I saw this guy out of the corner of my eye. He walked towards me - kind of gesticulated and said, 'Stay lucky.'

"I thought it was strange but put the dog in the car and drove out of the park. We were in the studio that day so I thought nothing more of it. Then on my way home I popped into a newsagent.

"I'm standing there in the queue and the radio in the shop's playing, and they say something about Richmond Park being closed since a murder at 10 this morning. I just froze. Exactly 15 minutes later, he told me to stay lucky.

"It made me sort of feel guilty because it turned out that I was the lucky one. I saw these pictures of Finnegan and thought, 'F**k, that could've been me.'"