HAMMER killer Michael Stone will remain behind bars after appeal judges threw out his second appeal today.

Lord Justice Rose, Justice Moses and Justice Walker dismissed Stone’s appeal after only a 10-minute deliberation.

They will reveal their reasons to the Appeal Court on Friday.

Stone, 44, from Gillingham, had hoped that his conviction would be branded unsafe due to the alleged unreliability of the prosecution’s key witness.

The prosecution case rested on Damien Daley, who says he heard Stone confess to the horrific killings while the pair were on remand together at Canterbury Prison in 1997.

Stone has always protested his innocence but will now spend three life sentences behind bars for the 1996 Chillenden murders of Lin Russell, 45, her daughter Megan, aged six, and the attempted murder of Josie, then aged nine.

Stone’s sister, Barbara, speaking on the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice in London, after the hearing, said: “As far as I’m concerned, and I’ve said it from day one, he is innocent. I had hoped this Great British justice system would understand and see that he is innocent."

She stressed: "How can anyone be sure that he is guilty? We all wanted justice and to have the real murderer in prison where he belongs.”

Commenting on Stone losing his appeal, Josie's father Dr Shaun Russell, who is on a scientific expediiton on islands off Southern Chile, said he was satisfied that Kent police did the best possible job given the difficult circumstances surrounding his case.

"The justice system has taken its course and as far as I can see it has been fair to all parties," he said.

"Josie and I have made an effort to put our memories of this terrible affair behind us, especially as nothing can bring back Josie's mother Lin and sister Megan.

"We would be grateful if we could be left in peace with our happy memories of the ones we have lost and to get on with our lives in as private and undisturbed a way as possible."