OJ’s former agent gets in on the act

As if the controversy last year over his own 'hypothetical' book If I Did It were not enough, OJ Simpson now faces the publication of his former sports agent Mike Gilbert's memoir titled How I Helped OJ Get Away With Murder. Just to rub it in - and to be sure of sales - Gilbert's publishers are releasing the book in April, when Simpson will be on trial in Las Vegas on charges including kidnapping and armed robbery.

It is now 14 years since Simpson, the former American football star and screen actor, was charged with the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, but was cleared of the crimes in an infamous trial by jury. According to a brief announcement, Gilbert, who claims to have represented Simpson for 18 years, will "detail OJ's late-night confession" and offer new evidence showing that Simpson did kill his ex-wife and Goldman.

Gilbert also promises "information on Gilbert's crucial role in obtaining the not guilty verdict and why he stayed silent for so long." He says he well be donating a portion of his earnings from the book to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

Gilbert is scheduled to appear as a prosecution witness at Simpson's April trial, which will deal with the incident in Las Vegas last year in which Simpson and a team of armed men allegedly tried to get back a collection of sports memorabilia he claimed was rightfully his.

In 2006, when Simpson planned to publish If I Did It, Gilbert said: "I can't forgive him for the way he has conducted himself since [the murders]. He's the kind of guy who, were he on the Titanic, would have taken two life preservers for himself and watched his kids drown."