TWO killers on death row for murdering a pair of Hampshire sailors are set to know their fate at the end of a hearing which starts today.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which sits at Downing Street, is due to consider a test case in its role as the top Commonwealth appeal court.

The judges' decision will set a precedent which will decide whether Melanson Harris and Marvn Joseph hang - or their death penalties are converted to life sentences.

Ian Cridland, 33, from Bursledon and Tom Williams, 22, of Sarisbury, died in a cold-blooded attack while sailing off Antigua in luxury yacht Computa Center Challenger in January 1994.

The 1996 trial which eventually convicted Harris and Joseph of murder, heard how Mr Cridland and Mr Williams had been bound and gagged, then blasted with a pump-action shotgun.

Their bodies were discovered by the captain of another vessel who became suspicious after not seeing anyone moving around the drifting ketch for several days.

Beside them were Americans Bill Clever, 55, and his wife, Kathleen, 50, who had also been killed.

Parvais Jabbar, the solicitor with Messrs Simons, Muirhead and Burton who is representing Harris, 29, and Joseph, 28, said: "There are no grounds to appeal against the convictions. But we are challenging the death sentence as a lawful sentence to pass on someone."

The Privy Council hearing is expected to last between one and two weeks.

Donaldson Samuel, the third member of the gang which seized the yacht after slaying its crew, is serving a 15-year prison sentence for manslaughter.