A farm labourer who killed a Witney couple had a bid to appeal against his convictions dismissed yesterday. John Cooper was given a whole life jail term with no hope of parole last year for two double murders and a string of robberies in Wales in the 1980s.

He shot and killed Witney holidaymakers Peter and Gwenda Dixon, above, as they walked along the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path in June, 1989.

Four years earlier he had killed farmer Richard Thomas, 58, and his sister Helen, 56, after they caught him breaking into their home in west Wales.

Advances in forensic techniques saw him brought to justice in 2011.