Convicted killer Jeremy Bamber, who has protested his innocence for more than 15 years, has said he wants to pray at the grave of the adoptive parents he was jailed for murdering when he is released from jail.

Bamber was given five life sentences after he was convicted of murdering five of his family members in 1986. But the Criminal Cases Review Commission has now referred the case to the Court of Appeal after a request from Bamber to the Home Office for a review of his case.

The 40-year-old, speaking from Whitemoor Prison in Cambridgeshire, told the Evening Gazette in Essex this week: "I didn't do it and clinging on to that thought has kept me sane. I am scared of the outside world and, when I am released, it will take some getting used to."

He has called for people to log on to his website - www.jeremybamber.com - including the jurors who convicted him at Chelmsford Crown Court.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission has been investigating Bamber's claims of innocence for four years.

The appeal hinges on DNA tests of blood samples from the gun's silencer which Bamber claims will show that his adoptive sister, Sheila Caffell, may have been responsible for the deaths of Mr and Mrs Bamber and her twin sons, Daniel and Nicholas, before turning the gun on herself.

The new evidence has now been sent to Essex Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The Court of Appeal interim hearing is due to take place in about two months.