CONVICTED double murderer Peter Fell was today released on bail by the Court of Appeal after prosecution lawyers agreed his conviction was unsafe.

The former soldier and camera salesman from Great Harwood was convicted in 1984 of murdering two women and sentenced to life imprisonment.

He is appealing against his conviction and three judges decided he should be freed today -- months before the appeal is to be heard.

Lord Justice Potter said he thought it was right to grant Fell bail but made it clear that the prosecution concessions may not be approved by the full Appeal Court hearing into the case next year.

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.

Fell, a former pupil at Norden High School, Rishton, claims he did not murder Margaret Johnson, 65, and Anne Lee, 44, who were stabbed to death in an apparently motiveless attack on Aldershot Common in May 1982.

The night after the murders, Fell telephoned the police anonymously to confess. A year later, after his third drunken phone call, he was taken in for questioning.

Patrick O'Connor QC, representing Fell, told the judges Mr Fell 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."

He said Fell was in any case shortly to be released on license from his jail term and accommodation was now available with an individual "who has long been concerned with his case." Since the case at Winchester Crown Court in 1984, inconsistencies have been revealed in Fell's confession to the murders.

Fell's solicitor, Jim Nicholls, said later that Fell was an extremely vulnerable man who needed proper care, attention and counselling.

He said: "The prison doctor who saw him every day in the week before his trial assessed him in October 1983 as a pathological confessor, by which he meant that he would confess to anything."

The Rev Billy McFetridge, an evangelist and prison visitor who has visited Fell frequently, said he was overjoyed at the decision to grant him bail.

He said: "It has taken a very long time but it looks as if justice will at last be done. I have been utterly convinced of Peter Fell's innocence from the first day I met him."

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope today welcomed the decision and said he would be raising with Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw his serious concerns about Hampshire police's conduct of the inquiry.

He said: "These include Mr Fell's arrest and interrogation and why, when I raised the issue I discussed it not with the Chief Constable but with the Assistant Chief Constable, whom I later discovered was the investigating officer in the case.

"I am most unhappy about the conduct of this case.

"I have previously raised my concerns about this case with the Hampshire Police, the Home Secretary and the Criminal Cases Review Board."

Mr Pope has been campaigning for Peter Fell's release for the last eight years.

He added: "I have long been convinced of his innocence and that a terrible miscarriage of justice has taken place.

"The news that the CPS are not going to contest his bail should lead to his release today.

"This is welcome news but it is long overdue."

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

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

A two day Appeal Court hearing is expected to take place in January next year when at least four medical experts are expected to give evidence about Mr Fell's vulnerability.