JEREMY Bamber's lawyer is considering legal action against the Home Office after the family killer had his throat slit in prison, he confirmed yesterday .

JEREMY Bamber's lawyer is considering legal action against the Home Office after the family killer had his throat slit in prison, he confirmed yesterday .

Bamber, who shot dead his adoptive parents, his former model sister Sheila "Bambi" Caffell and her twin sons in Essex, was attacked at Full Sutton jail in York.

Lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano said Bamber was talking to a female friend on the phone on Saturday when an inmate attacked him from behind.

He said: "I am considering taking legal action for negligence but Jeremy is not interested in money and he is not interested in revenge.

"He just wants to concentrate on the legal moves we are taking to clear his name."

Bamber, 43, who is serving life for the murders in 1985, was taken to York District Hospital where he received 28 stitches before he was returned to his cell.

The attacker's knife is thought to have come within a quarter of an inch of cutting his jugular.

The Prison Service confirmed an assault had taken place.

"A prisoner was taken to hospital following an assault on Saturday afternoon,' a spokeswoman said. "The police have been informed of the incident.'

Mr Di Stefano claimed: "Jeremy Bamber is entitled to as much protection as anybody else.

"The Prison Service are undermanned, underpaid, under-staffed and under-trained and Home Secretary David Blunkett should be concerning himself with the state of the end product of the criminal justice system.'

Mr Di Stefano said he was considering seeking to expedite the appeal procedure if Bamber was not safe in prison.

Bamber was jailed for life at Chelmsford Crown Court in 1986 for the murder of his adoptive parents, farmer Neville and June Bamber, his adoptive sister Sheila and her six-year-old sons, Nicholas and Daniel, at the family house in Tolleshunt D'Arcy, near Maldon.

The court heard that he carried out the killings to ensure he would inherit the farm and then sought to pin the blame on Ms Caffell, who had a history of mental health problems.

Sentencing him, the judge described Bamber as "evil beyond belief'.

Bamber, who has always proclaimed his innocence, alerted police to the killings at White House Farm in August 1985, claiming his father had telephoned him saying Ms Caffell had gone berserk with a gun.

Detectives initially believed that Ms Caffell, who suffered from mild schizophrenia and who had not been taking her medication, murdered her parents and sons before turning the gun on herself.

Bamber's mother and nephews were shot dead in their beds, while his father was found slumped downstairs and his sister was discovered by her parents' bed.

Bamber has previously lost two appeals against his conviction but his lawyers say they have found new evidence allegedly pointing to another person being the killer.

Mr Di Stefano said: "It's a deeply disturbing case. This man did not kill his family and nor did his sister.'