Jeremy Bamber’s 39-year campaign to prove he is innocent of the White Farm murders has been given a boost by an investigation that raises serious doubts about his conviction.
He is serving a life sentence for the murder of his foster parents, Nevill and June Bamber, both 61, his foster sister Sheila Caffell, 28, and their six-year-old twins, Daniel and Nicholas. They were all shot dead at the Essex farm on August 7, 1985.
Bamber has always maintained his innocence and that Sheila, a paranoid schizophrenic, carried out the murders before killing herself. He is the only lifer in the British prison system to maintain his innocence.
It is now known that a 17,000-word investigation by The New Yorker, to be published tomorrow, has highlighted more than a dozen apparent discrepancies in the prosecution’s case.
The magazine tracked down officers who were present after the murders and are believed to have corroborated Bamber’s claim that police tampered with the crime scene to frame him.
Jeremy Bamber’s campaign to prove his innocence has been given a boost by an investigation that raises questions about his conviction.
Bamber has always maintained his innocence and that Sheila (pictured centre with her children), a paranoid schizophrenic, carried out the murders before committing suicide.
Jeremy Bamber’s parents, Nevill and June, who were shot dead
The investigation is also understood to raise questions about the embattled Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which Bamber’s legal team says has failed to act on submissions that would exonerate him.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has called on Helen Pitcher, chair of the CCRC, to resign over the case of Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit.
An investigation into the CCRC’s role by Chris Henley KC concluded that several opportunities to refer the case to appeal had been missed. Malkinson, who was only freed as a result of forensic tests carried out by campaigners, said of proving his innocence: “I’m not the only one.”
The New Yorker, which has also questioned the certainty of nurse Lucy Letby’s conviction for the murder of seven babies, has been investigating the Bamber case since last October.
It has centred on allegations that Essex Police lied about evidence, altered witness statements, passed evidence to a third party, withheld and concealed evidence and tampered with a crime scene after the murders at the family farm near Maldon, Essex.
Bamber says her sister Sheila, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, feared her children would be placed into care, suffered a psychotic episode and carried out the murders before killing herself.
Bamber Farm, White House Farm in Tolleshunt D’Arcy, near Maldon, Essex
It was argued that Bamber must have carried out the murders as the gun had a silencer, making it too long for his sister to physically shoot herself, but this conclusion has been questioned.
Police argued that Bamber must have carried out the murders because the gun was fitted with a silencer, making it too long for her to physically fire herself, but ballistics experts later cast doubt on whether the rifle was fitted with a silencer.
Police also said that if he had gone on a rampage, his feet would have been covered in blood, and that was not the case. However, a photograph of his feet obtained by Bamber’s lawyers shows blood stains.
Police had initially worked under the theory that Sheila, a model known as Bambi, was responsible.
Bamber was placed at the centre of the investigation after his girlfriend Julie Mugford – whom he had been cheating on – claimed he had confessed to her plans to hire a hitman to kill the family. The hitman she named had a solid alibi and was released.
Bamber’s attorneys also discovered a police phone log that recorded a call Nevill made the night of the murders. The log, titled “crazy daughter,” indicated that Bamber had said his daughter had stolen one of his guns and had gone “crazy.”
A bloodstained Bible, found next to Sheila and opened to pages containing Psalms 51-55, about the struggle between good and evil, was never forensically examined or presented at the trial, despite requests from Bamber’s lawyer.
Last night, Bamber said: ‘If the restaging of the crime scene is a major new point in The New Yorker’s history, that will enable us to go straight back to the Court of Appeals, which I hope will be held within a few days after we have the new evidence in our hands.
Bamber has said that if the reconstruction of the crime scene is an important point in the story, he would allow it to go to the Court of Appeal.
Bamber became the focus of the investigation after his girlfriend Julie Mugford, whom he had stalked twice, claimed he had told her of plans to hire a hitman to kill the family.
‘The Court of Appeal has already said that re-enacting the crime scene would be a moral sin, so we will return to the Court of Appeal as soon as possible to apply for bail pending a full appeal.’
A spokesman for Bamber’s campaign said the New Yorker investigation highlighted a key issue raised in the report about the CCRC’s failings in the Malkinson case: “a refusal to conduct investigations into the arguments presented to them.”
They added: ‘The CCRC has had Jeremy Bamber’s latest submissions since March 2021 and… has failed to investigate any of the key exculpatory issues they contain, which demonstrate Jeremy Bamber’s innocence.’
The CCRC said it “makes impartial and evidence-based decisions.” Essex Police have long cited Bamber’s failed appeals when questioned about the safety of the conviction.
Additional information: Scott Jones
