APPEAL Court judges were today giving their reasons for clearing and freeing "serial confessor" Peter Fell, who spent 17 years in prison for a double murder he has always denied.

Mr Fell, 39, has been described by psychologists as a fantasist whose confession to the murders of two women in 1982 could not be trusted.

His lawyers also relied on fresh evidence that he could not have been at the scene of the killings.

Earlier this month Lord Justice Waller, Mr Justice Garland and Mr Justice Sachs ruled his convictions "unsafe" and overturned them.

Today they will give detailed reasons for their decision.

Mr Fell, a former hospital porter, was released on bail in December last year pending his appeal against the convictions which the prosecution did not attempt to uphold.

Originally from Accrington, Fell was convicted of murdering Ann Lee, 44, and Margaret "Peggy" Johnson, 65, as they walked their dogs on Aldershot Common on May 10, 1982.

Mrs Lee was stabbed 11 times and Mrs Johnson five times and Fell was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment at Winchester Crown Court on August 9, 1984.

After the killings, Fell made a total of 13 anonymous phone calls to police, saying he was the killer.

But his lawyers argued he was in a particularly vulnerable state at the time and prone to pressure applied by police.

He was described as a "serial confessor" with a tendency to tell "tall stories," even at one point claiming to be the Yorkshire Ripper.