Family killer Bamber fails in final bid to clear name

Jeremy Bamber's convictions for murdering five of his relatives more than 25 years ago will not be referred to the Court of Appeal.

Bamber, 51, serving a whole life term for the killings in 1985, 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.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission said that despite a lengthy and complex investigation, it "has 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".

The Commission said this was its final decision in its longest-running case. It said: "Matters of pure speculation or unsubstantiated allegation constitute neither new evidence nor new argument capable of giving rise to a real possibility that the Court of Appeal will quash a conviction."

In 2009 Bamber lost a Court of Appeal challenge against the whole-life sentence. He has twice lost appeals against conviction.