eight days of court time has been set aside to hear a bid by prosecutors to have Angus Sinclair stand trial for a second time over the World's End murders.

The Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Carloway, sitting with Lady Dorrian and Lord Marnoch at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh, said a hearing on the Crown application under double jeopardy legislation would begin on October 1, following a procedural hearing in the summer.

Sinclair, 67, was acquitted in 2007 of murdering 17-year-olds Christine Eadie and Helen Scott, who were last seen leaving the World's End bar in Edinburgh in 1977.

The Crown wants the acquittal set aside and to be granted authority for a new prosecution after a change in Scots law.