Lawyers acting for convicted murderer Jeremy Bamber plan to use the new Freedom of Information Act to obtain crucial evidence.

Bamber, jailed for life in 1986 for killing five members of his family at Tolleshunt D'Arcy, hopes to launch a fresh appeal on the grounds that new information has come to light.

His legal team claims radio messages, sent by police investigating the scene at White House Farm, indicate two bodies were lying in the kitchen, and an unknown person was seen moving around upstairs.

During the original trial, officers said only farmer Nevill Bamber was found dead in the kitchen, and made no mention of anyone alive in the house.

The defence lawyers, led by Giovanni di Stefano, have so far relied on written logs of the messages to back their argument that the apparent discrepancies mean 43-year-old Bamber's conviction was unsafe.

But they now propose to use the information act, which came into force on January 1 and grants members of the public the right to request secret information from public bodies, to apply for access to tapes of every word said by officers touring the house.

Bamber failed to prove his innocence at his last appeal hearing in 2002. The Criminal Cases Review Commission is currently reviewing whether the claims made by his lawyers are enough to justify a new one.

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Published Monday, January 17, 2005

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