A FORMER East Lancashire man freed from jail after 18 years for a double murder he did not commit has revealed he is to marry.

Born again Christian Peter Fell, 40, said he and fiancee Elaine, 32, will wed in September at the church where they met, the Metropolitan Tabernacle Church in South London, almost a year after he was cleared by Appeal Court judges of the murders of Anne Lee and Margaret Johnson in May 1982.

Peter, whose mother Maureen lived in Accrington, was brought up at Blake Gardens Children's Home in Great Harwood.

He attended Norden High School in Rishton, said: "We met in church and we are very happy. Elaine knows the whole situation and she's been brilliant.

"She comes from Malaysia and it was important to her that her parents approved. They have given their blessing and we are both looking forward to the big day, although I don't want to give away too many details away at this stage."

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope led a campaign to free Peter after it became apparent he had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Peter, who still has family living in the Hyndburn area, was jailed for life in 1984 after confessing to the murders of the two women walking their dogs on Aldershot Common.

But last March three Appeal Court judges took minutes to clear him after it emerged he was a "pathological confessor" at the time of the murders, and evidence supporting his alibi was not given at the original hearing.