Killer Bamber in new pardon bid

Jeremy Bamber has already lost two appeals against his conviction

Solicitors acting for convicted killer Jeremy Bamber have called on Home Secretary Charles Clarke to pardon the 44-year-old, it was revealed.

The legal team working on a third appeal claim to have uncovered new evidence of their client's innocence.

The Office for Criminal Justice Reform is considering a request for his release, Bamber's solicitors said.

In 1986 Jeremy Bamber was convicted of murdering five members of his family at their home in Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex.

Lawyers claims previously unseen photos of Bamber's dead sister will clear him.

Bamber has always denied shooting dead his adoptive parents, his sister and her twin six-year-old sons in 1985.

He hopes to secure a third appeal against his convictions. Two previous appeals in 1987 and 2002 failed.

Lawyers claim the photographs prove he was in police custody when Sheila Caffell - nicknamed Bambi - was killed.

Fresh blood

Detectives initially suspected that Ms Caffell, who had failed to take her schizophrenia medication, had murdered her parents, Neville and June, and her sons, Nicholas and Daniel, before turning the gun on herself.

Bamber, who stood to inherit almost £500,000 from his parents' estate, was convicted of the five murders in 1986.

Legal adviser Giovanni di Stefano has written to the Criminal Cases Review Commission with details of the new evidence and now hopes a further appeal date will be set.

He claims pictures of Ms Caffell taken at about 0900 BST on the day the bodies were found show her covered in fresh blood, suggesting she could only have died a maximum of two hours earlier.

Bamber was taken into custody by officers at 0300 BST that morning after calling police to tell him about a dispute at the family home.