A notorious police killer - and one of Britain's longest serving prisoners - is to be released.  

Harry Roberts, formerly of Wanstead, was jailed in 1966 for a minimum of 30 years for shooting dead two police officers in Shepherd’s Bush.

An accomplice murdered a third officer.

Detective Constable David Wombwell, Sergeant Christopher Head and PC Geoffrey Fox were killed after they approached his van parked near Wormwood Scrubs prison, which was stocked with firearms. 

Roberts, now 78, has served 48 years behind bars and is said to have applied for parole many times in recent years. 

The Parole Board is understood to have approved his release from Littlehey Prison in Cambridge.

Roberts’s parents ran The George pub in High Street, Wanstead. 

Following the killings, he hid out in Epping Forest and the surrounding areas for three months, before being captured in a camouflaged den near Bishop's Stortford. 

When he appeared at the Old Bailey just months before the death penalty was abolished, Mr Justice Glyn-Jones said it was "the most heinous crime to have been committed in his country for a generation or more."   

"I think it likely that no Home Secretary regarding the enormity of your crime will ever think fit to show mercy by releasing you on licence," he added.

Police officers have reacted angrily to the decision to release Roberts.

John Tully, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, posted on Twitter: "A total betrayal of policing by the criminal justice system.

“This man should never see the light of day again, life should mean life".