Jeremy Bamber to renew legal bid against murder convictions

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

A High Court judge in London recently rejected his application for permission to seek judicial review of a refusal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to refer his case back to the Court of Appeal.

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 his application. But a spokeswoman for the Judicial Office confirmed yesterday that Bamber is to renew his application at a hearing in open court.

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

Announcing the decision in April the CCRC 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”.