Two witnesses have come forward to identify a new suspect in the murders of a mother and her six-year-old daughter in Kent.

Michael Stone has been in prison for 29 years for the horrific attack on 9 July 1996.

He was found guilty of bludgeoning Dr Lin Russell and her daughter Megan to death with a hammer as they walked home from a school swimming gala.

He was also found guilty of the attempted murder of Dr Russell’s nine-year-old daughter Josie.

Stone has continually claimed that he is innocent.

Family members have now given witness statements to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) naming their relative Raymond Buck as the killer, the Sunday Times reported.

Read more: Michael Stone’s convictions for murders of Lin and Megan Russell to be reviewed

One of the new witnesses, Ross Shields, 39, was a child at the time of the murders.

He told the Sunday Times that he overheard Buck confess to a family member on the day of the attacks: “I’ve done something unforgivable. I’ve killed three people.”

According to the report, Buck was a carpenter, had a history of violence and died by suicide in 2000 at the age of 46.

Stone’s solicitor said that the miscarriages of justice watchdog was now undertaking reviews on the new evidence, and gathering fresh DNA evidence.

“I’m much more positive than [Stone] has been for the last 29 years,” Karen Todner said.

“We’re hoping that things are finally, finally moving in the right direction.

“The CCRC are undertaking further DNA analysis. Because obviously the science behind DNA has dramatically improved since his case, and since the last DNA analysis.

“So they’re doing that. And when they’ve done that, then we’re hoping that they will test that against various people, Raymond Buck being one of them.”

Ms Todner explained that while the oral witness evidence was important, “conclusive evidence” would be a DNA result.

Stone, and a member of Buck’s family, are among those to submit to the new round of DNA analysis.

Ms Todner said: “If DNA comes back as positive for anyone other than Michael, then obviously we’ll be asking the CCRC to send it back to the Court of Appeal.

“So hopefully we’ll know where we are by the end of this year.”

Mr Shields said that he did not want to comment further.