THOUSANDS of pounds have been donated by members of the public to help get mass murderer Jeremy Bamber's convictions overturned.

On the 31st anniversary of his arrest a @crowdjustice page was set up to raise £1,530 to pay for a forensic report on photocopies of handwritten notes.

A total of £2,531 was raised.

A second appeal to raise £4,000 within 28 days has already raised £1,291during the past 72 hours.

Bamber, 55, was jailed for life for killing his parents June and Nevill Bamber, his sister, Sheila Caffell and her twin sons Nicholas and Daniel, six, at a farm in Tolleshunt D’Arcy in 1985.

Bamber has continued to protest his innocence.

He, and his supporters, claim his sister Sheila Caffell killed her family and then herself.

Campaigner Trudi Benjamin via the appeal page stated: "Our aim is to leave no stone unturned and no avenue unexplored in order to build up a body of unchallengeable forensic expert reports in preparation of submissions to the CCRC.

"And so, since this earlier campaign, our efforts have now turned to the opportunity we have been afforded via the Crowd Justice platform and we now have 30 days to raise £4,000."

Essex Police stand by the conviction.

A spokesman said: "Jeremy Bamber's conviction for killing five people, including two children, has been subjected to close scrutiny by the Court of Appeal and also a review by the Criminal Cases Review Commission and there has never been anything to suggest that he was wrongly convicted.

"The Court of Appeal found in 2002 that the deeper they looked into the available evidence the more likely it seemed that the jury was right.

"Between 2004 and 2012 the Criminal Cases Review Commission investigated the safety of the conviction with the full co-operation of Essex Police and it did not identify any new evidence or legal argument to overturn Bamber’s conviction.

"A Judicial Review brought by Bamber of the Commission’s decision was also dismissed by the High Court."

The funding site can be found at: https://www.crowdjustice.co.uk/case/appeal-fund