A man who served 17 years in prison for the murder of two women out walking their dogs was cleared by the Court of Appeal yesterday.

Peter Fell, 39, freed on bail last December pending the hearing of his fresh appeal, said of his years in jail: ''I have just got to put it behind me and start afresh. If I dwell on it, it will just do me more harm.''

The court will give its reasons at a later date for quashing Mr Fell's convictions of murdering Ann Lee, 44, and Margaret ''Peggy'' Johnson, 65, who were stabbed repeatedly at Aldershot Common, Hampshire, on a May afternoon in 1982.

Jim Nichol, Mr Fell's solicitor, said: ''The real thing about this case is that he is completely and totally innocent. He may be a crackpot, he may be crazy, he may be all these things - and probably was in 1982 - but a murderer he was not and never has been.''

Defence lawyers told the appeal judges that Mr Fell was a victim of ''oppressive'' police interrogation during which he was not allowed access to a solicitor. Psychiatric evidence showed he was vulnerable to suggestion and a ''serial confessor''.

The Crown conceded that his confessions to police were unreliable and that, on that basis alone, his convictions could not be upheld.

The former Bournemouth hospital porter, originally from Accrington, Lancashire, was jailed for life at Winchester Crown Court in August 1984.

Appeal judges Lord Justice Waller, Mr Justice Garland and Mr Justice Sachs heard that Mr Fell was seen five times by police in the months after the murders because he had pointed the finger at himself in a series of telephone calls.