Jeremy Bamber 'to renew murder convictions challenge'

A judge turned down Jeremy Bamber's latest appeal bid

Convicted killer Jeremy Bamber is to renew his legal bid to challenge his convictions for murdering five relatives more than 25 years ago.

Bamber, 51, is serving a whole-life sentence for shooting dead five members of his family in Essex in 1985.

He had lost a bid to challenge the Criminal Cases Review Commission's (CCRC) decision not to send his case to the Court of Appeal last month.

A Judicial Office spokesman said Bamber would renew his application.

He said the new legal bid would made in an open court hearing.

Bamber has always protested his innocence and claims his schizophrenic sister Sheila Caffell shot her family before turning the gun on herself in a remote Essex farmhouse.

He was granted an appeal in 2002, after the case was referred by the CCRC, but the appeal was later dismissed.

The CCRC is an independent body which investigates the safety of convictions and any possible miscarriages of justice.

After studying the case papers in private, a single judge turned down Bamber's application last month.

Announcing its decision in April, the CCRC said it had not identified "any evidence or legal argument that it considers capable of raising a real possibility that the Court of Appeal would quash the convictions".

Bamber's latest application is unlikely to be heard before the New Year.