A LEGAL team of a convicted killer will be allowed access to more than 400 crime scene photographs which were used to make a provisional decision not to refer his convictions for murdering five of his relatives to the Court of Appeal, the Criminal Cases Review Commission has said.

Notorious inmate Jeremy Bamber, 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 farmhouse in Tolleshunt D’Arcy.

His legal team will now be given access to all 406 crime scene photographs, including dozens of post mortem images of the victims, which were taken by Essex Police.

Lawyers were initially given until the start of May to respond to February’s decision, but will now be given an extra 11 weeks until July 22 to study the images, the CCRC said.

At least 401 of those images have been seen by the lawyers and photographic experts before, with three of the other images showing the outside of White House Farm and two showing a blue Leyland van.

“The matters being discussed have included questions about the disclosure of crime scene photographs and negatives,” a spokesman for the CCRC said.

“The commission is in possession of 401 negatives of photographs taken in connection with the murders at White House Farm that were provided to the commission by Essex Police.

“A further five prints were provided later by Essex Police after the force had carried out further checks at the Commission’s request to ensure that we had possession of all available images.

“We have now approached Mr Bamber and his team with a proposal to allow them access to the material they require and to permit prints to be made of all the negatives in our possession.

“We have attached some conditions to the handling of the material. These conditions are designed to ensure that Mr Bamber and his team have full access to the material they need, but that the negatives and images remain accounted for and do not find their way into the public domain.”

The spokesman went on: “When the period for further submissions ends, the commission will consider Mr Bamber’s case again in light of any further submissions received and make a final decision about whether or not to refer the case to the Court of Appeal.

“It would be inappropriate for us to offer any further comment on the case at this point.”