Killer's status change ruled out

Bamber was convicted of murdering five members of his family

A convicted killer must remain classed as a highly dangerous "category A" prisoner, the High Court has ruled.

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

Bamber, serving five life sentences, had attempted to have his security status downgraded to category B.

But Mr Justice Stanley Burnton said the crimes for which Bamber was convicted were "severe in the extreme" and rejected his application.

Lawyers for Bamber applied to the High Court to quash the decision on the grounds that he posed a lower risk, and that downgrading could lead to him enjoying a less severe prison regime, even though he might never be let out of jail.

His barrister Flo Krause argued there had been a failure to carry out the necessary balancing of risk, and that Bamber was wrongly being kept in category A because he maintained his innocence.

'Killed for money'

Rejecting the application, Mr Justice Stanley Burnton conceded that convicted killers who refused to accept their guilt created a quandary when it came to assessments of how dangerous they might be.

But the judge, sitting at the High Court in London, said the crimes for which Bamber was convicted were "severe in the extreme".

The review team had not been perverse to accept psychological reports showing category A status was justified, said the judge.

Bamber was found guilty of shooting his adoptive parents, June and Nevill, his sister Sheila Caffell, and her six-year-old twin sons Daniel and Nicholas at their farmhouse in Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex, in August 1985.

The prosecution alleged he had murdered them out of greed, hoping to inherit a £500,000 fortune.

Bamber consistently argued that his sister, a model known as "Bambi" who had a history of mental illness, killed her family before turning the gun, a .22 semi-automatic rifle, on herself.