Judges have refused the Lockerbie bomber’s family permission to take an appeal against his conviction to the UK’s highest court. The bombing of Pan Am flight 103, travelling from London to New York on December 21 1988, killed 270 people in Britain’s largest terrorist atrocity. Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was found guilty in 2001 of mass murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years – the only person convicted of the attack. In January, judges at the Court of Appeal in Edinburgh rejected a third appeal against his conviction, which was made by his son. Megrahi was the only person convicted of the atrocity (Danny Lawson/PA)