CONVICTED killer Jeremy Bamber is 56. He feels his age.

"I'm nearly 60 now," he says.

"I think I have kept myself in shape but I am an old man now."

His swathe of black hair, so recognisable in photographs after the murders, is now grey. His blue eyes now look out from behind glasses.

He carries a scar across his neck from an attack in prison in 2004.

Life has taken its toll.

We are in the visitors' room at the high security Wakefield Prison in Yorkshire to discuss his case.

Bamber has consistently claimed his is innocent of the crimes for which he has been convicted.

If he is, it is among the worst miscarriages of justice this country has ever seen.

Bamber has spent 31 of his 56 years in jail - more than half his life.

He was jailed in 1986 for the murders of his parents Nevill and June, his sister Sheila Caffell and her six-year-old twin sons, Nicholas and Daniel.

Gazette: Sister - Sheila Bamber with twins Daniel and Nicholas

The killings at White House Farm in Tolleshunt D'Arcy were brutal.

Nevill, 61, a farmer, was shot eight times and beaten with a rifle, his wife June, a churchwarden, was shot seven times. The twins were shot as they slept in their beds, a total of eight times.

Sheila, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, was found with two wounds in her neck.

Bamber was found guilty after a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court by a majority of ten to two.

He has served his sentence at Britain's highest security prisons including Gartree in Leicestershire, Whitemoor on the bleak Cambridgeshire fens and Full Sutton in York.

Bamber says he had been a model prisoner. He has won an award for his work translating books into braille. He now teaches prisoners to read as part of the work of the Shannon Trust.

Wakefield Prison in Yorkshire is a world away from the privileged lifestyle he once enjoyed as the son of a country farmer.

The prison, the largest high security jail in western Europe, has been nicknamed Monster Manson due to the large number of high-profile, high-risk sex offenders and murderers held there.

Among them are Charles Bronson, who has been in jail for 41 years now, originally for armed robbery but followed by assaults on guards and hostage taking.

Gazette: Murdered - Nevill and June Bamber at White House Farm

Child murder Ian Huntley was also held there and serial killer Dr Harold Shipman committed suicide there in 2004.

Bamber says he has not become institutionalised and is also confident sure he will be released one day.

Old friends from Tolleshunt D'Arcy still send him pictures from the village and he hopes, one day, to return. Not to stay. He is not sentimental about his childhood home. He says he just needs closure.

"I've had dark times. There are times when I have been angry, vengeful, disappointed. There are times when I have been depressed, broken even. But I am excited now.

"I believe you don't know what is around the corner so you should never give up.

"When I do get out of jail, I would like to be an inspirational speaker and would tell people not to give up. Everyone has difficulties in their lives be it illness or losing your job or being in prison. But I believe anything is possible and I want to demonstrate that."

Bamber divides opinion.

To some he is still a monster who brutally murdered his family driven by sheer greed to inherit £426,000.

He is undoubtedly a thorn in the side of the establishment.

But to some he is an innocent man - the sixth victim of the White House Farm massacre.

He receives more than 100 letters a week from supporters and received 500 Christmas cards.

Supporters set up a foundation, the Jeremy Bamber Campaign, to fight for his release.

Patrons include the actress Susan Penhaligan, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, Diana Lady Waterlow, who has been a magistrate for 42 years and Michelle Bates is the sister of Barry George who was wrongly convicted in 2001 of the killing of TV presenter Jill Dando.

Two crowdfunding appeals to raise money for examination into evidence have raised £12,000.

A third crowdfunding appeal has now been launched called Forensics 360.

The target is £6,000 to pay for a review of all material evidence used at Bamber's trial.

A spokesman for the campaign said: "We are looking at the case in its entirety, a full 360 degrees, to explore new avenues."

Camps for and against Bamber are irreconcilably divided.

At the end of the day, only one man knows absolutely the truth about the White House Farm murders - and that is Bamber himself.

n Tomorrow, challenging the evidence.

JEREMY Bamber was jailed in 1986 for the murders of his parents Nevill and June, his sister Sheila Caffell and her six-year-old twin sons, Nicholas and Daniel.

The killings at White House Farm in Tolleshunt D'Arcy were brutal.

Nevill, 61, a farmer, was shot eight times and beaten with a rifle, his wife June, a churchwarden, was shot seven times. The twins were shot as they slept in their beds, a total of eight times.

Sheila, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, was found with two wounds in her neck.

The initial thinking from Essex Police was Sheila had lost control following a conversation about having the twins put into foster care and shot her family before turning the gun on herself.

Five weeks later, the finger of blame shifted.

Bamber's then girlfriend Julie Mugford went to the police saying he had admitted committing the murders having employed a plumber as a hitman.

Bamber, for his part, says she was angry because she found out he had cheated on her.

The evidence surrounding the hitman was dismissed at trial.

However, the majority of the jury accepted evidence presented by the police that Bamber had shot his family and had sought to cover his tracks by putting the blame on his sister.

Bamber was found guilty by a majority of ten to two and was sentenced to serve at least 25 years in jail by judge Mr Justice Drake who described him as "evil, almost beyond belief".

Bamber's surviving family were key witnesses for the prosecution. They have, not surprisingly, had no contact with him since his conviction.

Under normal circumstances, having served the set term, Bamber may have expected to have been considered for parole.

But nothing about Bamber and the White House Farm murders is normal.

Bamber has had two appeals against his conviction rejected by the Court of Appeal.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission took eight years to consider his next application for leave to appeal before throwing that out in 2012.

He has had a whole life tariff imposed upon him retrospectively - a move he claims is invalid.

He passed a polygraph test on his protestation of innocence but it is considered inadmissible.

He is still a Category A prisoner - having been upgraded from a Category B prisoner - because his late uncle Robert Boutflour said he felt he would be in danger if he was released.