Jeremy Bamber is one of the UK's most high-profile mass murderers, almost as much for remaining in the news on a regular basis since his conviction as for the shocking crimes he committed.
Bamber was 25 when he was given five life sentences in 1986 for shooting dead his adoptive parents, sister and twin six year old nephews at the family farmhouse in Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex, the previous year.
The court was told that Bamber shot his family and then placed the rifle in his sister's hands in order to make her appear as the person who carried out the killings and then turned the gun on herself. The police initially believed her sister, Sheila Caffell, was the killer because she was a known paranoid schizophrenic and had not been taking her medication.
Bamber, who lived in a nearby house, was then placed under suspicion after his own prints were found on the gun and his girlfriend admitted to police that he had talked about killing his parents in the past.
It was argued by the prosecution, and accepted by the jury, that Bamber killed his whole family in order to claim an inheritance of almost £500,000.
His girlfriend, Julie Mugford, who was seen comforting Bamber at the mass funeral of all five relatives, told the court that her boyfriend had talked in the past about killing his parents.
Bamber was told by his trial judge, Mr. Justice Drake, that he was "warped and evil" and added that he found it difficult to imagine anyone agreeing to release Bamber from jail in the future. He has been told by each Home Secretary since his conviction that he will never gain his freedom through parole, although Bamber has always pleaded his innocence and has seen two appeals against his convictions rejected.
Bamber continues to pursue and offer rewards for fresh evidence which will ensure that his convictions are overturned, which remains a great source of anger to his remaining family.
In 2004, Bamber was rushed to a hospital after he was attacked by another inmate while making a telephone call from Full Sutton Prison, near York, where he was serving his sentence. He suffered deep cuts to his neck but made a full recovery.
In October 1986 Jeremy Bamber was convicted, by a majority of ten to two, of the murders of five members of his family. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, with the recommendation that he should serve a minimum of twenty-five years behind bars. Despite two failed appeals Bamber maintains he is the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
In the early hours of 7 August 1985 Bamber called the police to White House Farm in Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Essex, saying that his adopted father, Ralph, had telephoned him to say that his sister had “gone crazy” and had got a gun. At 07:30, after having been at the farm for a number of hours, members of the Tactical Firearms Unit stormed the building and found five dead bodies. Ralph had been shot eight times and was found in the kitchen. Sheila Caffell’s twin sons were found in their room with one having been shot three times in the head and the other five times in the head. Ralph’s wife, June, was found in the main bedroom where she had been shot seven times. Beside June’s bed lay Sheila Caffell, who had been shot twice in the throat and who held an Anschutz rifle in her hands. It appeared she had committed suicide, with the post mortem examination showing that she could have survived for a few minutes after sustaining the first wound but would have died immediately upon sustaining the second. Sheila was known to have considered ending her life, expressed an intention to kill her sons and felt the need to cleanse her mother’s ‘evil’ mind. It was therefore not surprising that the police believed she killed her family before ending her own life. However, in September 1985 Bamber was arrested twice and charged with five murders.
If he had not been convicted, Bamber would have inherited £438,000 from his parents’ wills. This was the motive that allegedly caused Bamber to commit such a horrific crime. This does not prove he committed murders, however, because many people are beneficiaries under a will but they do not turn to crime.
Sheila could not have committed the murders, the court heard, because she was inexperienced with guns. What the jury never heard was that she had gone on shooting holidays with a cousin. It is true that twenty five or twenty six rounds had been fired and that all or all but one had hit their target but most shots had been fired from a few inches away and so, from such a short range, how could she be expected to miss?
Three days after the shootings one of Bamber’s cousins found a sound moderator (silencer) in a downstairs gun cupboard. Upon close examination, later that evening, it was noticed that a small amount of blood was present inside the tube. Tests on the blood appeared to show that it originated from Sheila Caffell. It was claimed at trial that there was a “remote possibility”, however, that the blood could have bee a mixture from Ralph and June Bamber. If the blood was Sheila’s then this meant she could not have committed suicide, the prosecution argued, because if she did kill herself how did the sound moderator find its way downstairs? Recent tests show the blood was not Sheila’s; none of her DNA was found, yet DNA from June Bamber and a male, possibly Ralph Bamber, was found.
It was alleged Bamber entered the farmhouse via the window for the downstairs toilet and that he climbed out of a window in the kitchen after having killed his family. It was argued at trial that both of these windows had been found insecure, but numerous documents unavailable at the trial show that when the police entered the building all of the windows were closed and locked. If they were locked, and all of the doors were locked, then how did Bamber get into the house to carry out the murders?
The main evidence against Bamber came from Julie Mugford who, at the time of the deaths, was Bamber’s girlfriend. She told the court that Bamber had plotted to kill his family for many months before their deaths. On the eve of the shootings Bamber told Mugford, “Tonight’s the night”, the jury were led to believe. He later phoned to tell her that everything was going well. Bamber’s defence team argued Mugford could not be treated with credibility because she approached the police almost immediately upon being dumped by Bamber. It was shown Mugford had become incredibly hurt and upset and at one point in time she had tried to smother Bamber with a pillow. “If I can’t have you, nobody can”, she is believed to have told Bamber.
If Bamber was the murderer he must have committed his crimes between midnight and 03:00 on the morning of 7 August 1985. This is a fact. From 03:15 onwards Bamber was speaking to the police on his phone at his cottage in Goldhanger (three and a half miles from White House Farm), driving to White House Farm and then he was in the company of police officers until long after the bodies were discovered. The many bullets fired at each of his alleged victims would have meant that they died within moments of being shot. How, therefore, could the police have seen someone moving within the farmhouse at 03:45 and later, at 05:25, could they have been conversing with someone inside the building? Whilst he was stood outside White House Farm with two police officers a figure was seen moving in the main bedroom. At trial the figure was dismissed as a shadow or trick of light, but now documentary evidence shows the officer who made the sighting recorded what he saw as an unidentified male. A log of radio communications shows that at 05:25 the tactical firearms officers were ‘in conversation’ with a person inside White House Farm. How could this be if everyone inside was dead? It is known, from studying photographs never shown to the jury, that Sheila Caffell was still bleeding at 08:00 when photographs of the scene of the crime were taken. How could this be if she had been shot at least five hours earlier? People stop bleeding shortly after death.
The sighting of what was believed to be a male at 03:45 introduces the possibility that someone other than Sheila or Bamber carried out this terrible crime. It was said at trial that only Bamber or Sheila could have been responsible and so if it could be shown Sheila was not a murderer then Bamber had to be guilty, the jury were led to believe. Therefore the possibility that some unknown man was the killer raises serious questions over the safety of Bamber’s conviction.
Whether it was Sheila Caffell or some other individual who was seen moving within the building, and who later spoke to the police, remains unknown but what is certain is that Sheila was alive long after 03:00 and therefore Bamber could not have been responsible for her death or the deaths of anyone else inside the building and that is a fact. On the basis of this highly significant new evidence Jeremy Bamber’s case is being reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, who it is hoped will refer it to the Court of Appeal in the near future.
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