A man found guilty of killing a runaway schoolgirl whose body was found wrapped in carpet and buried in a back garden could have his conviction quashed.

Idris Ali was jailed for six years in 1994 after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of missing Cardiff teenager Karen Price. The 15-year-old vanished in 1981, and it took a further eight years before the grim discovery of her corpse was made.

Although having served his time, the Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred Ali's conviction to the Court of Appeal after what it detailed a "real possibility" it was "unsafe".

The development comes less than a month after it made a similar decision with Ali's co-accused Alan Charlton - who has to date served 23 years in jail for the murder of Ms Price.

Commission officials said their referral came following new evidence that officers involved in Ali's case were also involved in two notorious South Wales miscarriages of justice.

A spokesman said there was "new evidence that a number of officers who were involved in the Lynette White murder inquiry and the Phillip Saunders murder inquiry were also involved in Mr Ali's case."

The CCRC also raised concerns about "oppressive" tactics used by the detectives in the case, breaches of police rules regarding detention, treatment and questioning and the credibility of prosecution witnesses.

Ms Price's body was found wrapped in a carpet buried in the garden of a house on Fitzhamon Embankment, Cardiff, on December 7 1989.

She was last seen on July 2 1981 when she had run away from a children's home.

Ali, along with co-defendant Charlton, pleaded not guilty but was convicted in February 1991 at Cardiff Crown Court, of the murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a tariff of 15 years.

Both men later appealed against their convictions and in November 1994 the Court of Appeal upheld Charlton's conviction, but ordered a retrial for Ali.

Ahead of the case being put to a jury again, Ali pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

He was sentenced to six years' imprisonment. However, because of the time he had already served, he was released from prison at the end of those proceedings.

In February 2014, the CCRC referred Alan Charlton's murder conviction to the Court of Appeal and invited Ali to make an application - which he has now done.

A spokesman for the Commission said: "Having reviewed the case in detail, the Commission has decided to refer Mr Ali's conviction for manslaughter to the Court of Appeal.

"The case is referred primarily on the same basis that Mr Charlton's case was referred. Namely, that there is a real possibility the Court of Appeal will conclude that the conviction is unsafe because of the risk of the prosecution amounting to an abuse of process."