RELATIVES of one of East Anglia's most notorious killers, have spoken of their fears should he ever be released from prison.ITV's Real Crime: Jeremy Bamber, features interviews with relatives who reveal their fears for their own safety, and they tell how his recent appeal through the law courts, had revisited their worst fears.

RELATIVES of one of East Anglia's most notorious killers, have spoken of their fears should he ever be released from prison.

ITV's Real Crime: Jeremy Bamber, features interviews with relatives who reveal their fears for their own safety, and they tell how his recent appeal through the law courts, had revisited their worst fears.

In interviews held at White House Farm, near the Essex village of Tolleshunt D'Arcy, cousin Ann Eaton and her brother David Boutflour, explain how they feel they would still be next on Bamber's hit list.

"The appeal was complete torture for the remaining family," says Ann.

"We had tried to forget things – or at least move on from what he did – and then the appeal last year (2002) just drags everything back up again. We feel like pawns in Jeremy's warped game.

"If he is ever let out, heaven knows what would happen to the rest of my family. If he could kill Aunty June and Uncle Nevill, Sheila and her children so easily, we would just be picked off one by one – we know that, it's more than just a fear, we know it."

The programme to be screened on January 5 at 11pm, comes a year after another documentary by Channel 4, called The Amazing Story of Jeremy Bamber - which asked if he is a scheming psychopath or the victim of a terrible miscarriage of justice?

Bamber was convicted 17 years ago of slaughtering his family including his two six year old nephews in their Essex farmhouse. He still protests his innocence.

Bamber's sister Sheilagh Caffell, 22, was found lying next to a .22 rifle.

She had apparently murdered her family in a fit of madness then shot on herself. A single gunshot was fired under her chin aimed towards her brain Tests later confirmed she had fired the weapon. The body of her father Neville was found in the kitchen and mother June's in the master bedroom. Little Nicholas and Daniel were shot in their beds.

It was thought Neville had phoned Jeremy, then 25, but was then shot by Sheilagh who finally returned to the master bedroom and shot herself.

Three days later Bamber's cousin Mr Boutflour discovered a silencer bearing Sheilagh's own blood in a cupboard. That raised the question 'how could she have shot herself then returned the silencer to its resting place?'

Bamber's girlfriend Julie Mugford walked into Chelmsford police station a month after the killings and said he had often bragged he was going to kill his parents for their money. During his trial at Chelmsford Crown Court it was alleged that he plotted the deaths for over a year. The jury believed Bamber told his ex lover Ms Mugford he had hired a mercenary to kill his family and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.