A MAN convicted of two murders, who has served 17 years in prison despite repeatedly pleading his innocence, has been released on bail because his original "confessions" were unreliable.

During his time in jail Peter Fell, 39, wrote to the Daily Echo a number of times claiming he had not stabbed to death two women as they walked their dogs on a common.

He also vowed to prove his innocence when he was visited in prison by an Echo reporter.

Yesterday, three Court of Appeal judges released Fell on bail after deciding that his confessions to the crimes were unreliable because he was "unusually vulnerable" to suggestion.

The former Bournemouth hotel porter is now awaiting a full appeal hearing in January.

Speaking of his freedom, he said: "I am very relieved and naturally happy and I have always believed that one day I would be proved innocent.

"I am innocent and one day it will be proved. I became a Christian some years ago and the Lord has helped me through this."

Former soldier Fell was convicted at Winchester Crown Court in 1984 of murdering Ann Lee, 44, the wife of an army major, and Margaret "Peggy" Johnson, 65, as they walked their dogs on Aldershot Common two years earlier.

On the night of the murders, Fell telephoned the police anonymously to confess.

Shortly afterwards he moved to Wellington Road, Bournemouth, and married. The couple had a baby, Sara, in 1983.

The same year, after his third drunken phone call to police claiming he was responsible for the murders, he was taken in for questioning.

During three days of interview without a solicitor, he made a confession that he later withdrew. No forensic evidence was produced at his trial and no murder weapon has ever been found.

After a 19-day trial a jury took 25 hours to find Fell guilty by a 10-2 majority.

Since the trial, two women attacked in the same area by a man they believe was the murderer have come forward to say the culprit was definitely not Fell.

At the Court of Appeal prosecution lawyers did not oppose bail and Lord Justice Potter said it appeared to be "essentially a matter of agreement" between lawyers for both sides that the conviction should be overturned.

Patrick O'Conner QC, representing Fell, told the judges that his client had a tendency to fantasise and said: "In the light of the expert evidence about Mr Fell's vulnerability in police custody, it is submitted that the conviction is unsafe because the confessions are unreliable.

"Expert knowledge about this sort of vulnerability really did not exist at the time of the trial."

Wheeling a trolley loaded with three large boxes containing his possessions, Fell said it would be up to judges to rule on his conviction appeal, but he was "confident" he would be cleared.

He said: "I used to say a lot of silly things but did not realise that they would be used against me at the trial."