A follower of cult leader Charles Manson has been denied parole by a California panel after serving 40 years in jail for her part in the Sharon Tate murders.

The parole board said that 63-year-old Patricia Krenwinkel will not be eligible for parole again for seven years.

The panel said they were swayed by the memory and of the crimes, along with 80 letters which came from all over the world urging Krenwinkel's continued incarceration.

Krenwinkel was convicted with Manson and two other female followers in seven 1969 murders, considered among the most notorious crimes of the 20th century.

She has been imprisoned longer than any other woman in California.

Hollywood star Tate and four other people were found brutally murdered at her Los Angeles home.

Tate, married to film director Roman Polanski, was eight months pregnant at the time.

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