first published June 2016
1) My awakening
All
content is supported with documented evidence.
In England, thirty years ago on 28
October 1986, Jeremy Bamber was tried and found guilty, by a ten to twelve
majority verdict, of the murders, on the night of 7 August 1985, of his entire
family, they being, his adoptive parents; June, an active member of the local
church community, father, Nevill, an agricultural farmer and magistrate,
Jeremy's adoptive sister, Sheila Caffell, and her six-year-old twin sons.
I recall the images splashed all the
over newspapers. I was appalled at the brutality - the violence - the obscenity
of it all and those poor little boys, their whole lives ahead of them; shot in
the head and heartbreakingly we heard that one was still sucking his thumb when
found in his bed.
June and Nevill Bamber lived in the
village of Tollesunt D’Arcy, Essex, Jeremy Bamber's home was a few miles away
in Goldhanger. Both villages have direct access to the River Blackwater.
Visiting with her sons was Sheila, who had been previously diagnosed with Schizophrenia, which, according to local
gossip, was exacerbated by her use of illegal drugs, resulting in her admission
to a mental health hospital, from which she had been discharged a few days
earlier.
Living locally as I do I had daily
reminders of those events and presumed Jeremy Bamber was guilty as charged. I
trusted the judicial system, our British police, and to a certain extent, the
press. I recall being bewildered that Jeremy Bamber had requested that the
Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) forward his case to the Court of Appeal
and although his conviction was upheld Jeremy continued with those requests. I
could not understand why he would re-submit the same evidence for review but at
that time I did not appreciate the complex nature and criteria of the UK appeal system.
My journey into the truth began one
evening in August 2011. Attempting to relax after a busy day and frustratingly
channel-hopping for some easy-to-watch TV, my thumb, seemingly ignorant of my
plans, paused and hovered tantalisingly over a programme entitled, ‘Crimes That Shook Britain’ succumbing to curiosity I let it
fall onto 'select'.
2) First steps
All
content is supported with documented evidence.
I remained motionless as 'Crimes That
Shook Britain' credits rolled down the TV screen, trying to take in what I had
just watched. I had no sense of disbelief, other than the disbelief that the UK
justice system had incarcerated this innocent man for twenty five years, with
no circumstantial or forensic evidence linking him to the murders. Yet his two
appeals had been overruled - why? But then the company that produced the series, Title
Role, is considered reputable. They do
not appear to indulge in sensationalism but use credible, investigative
journalism such as in the tragic unfolding of events in the life of little Victoria
Climbié, tortured and starved to death by her guardians, under the full gaze of
Social Services, health professionals and the education system. The atrocity
led to a public inquiry and produced major changes in child protection and
multi-agency working in the United Kingdom.
Sipping on my glass of red I wandered
through the kitchen into my garden, admiring the success of my green-fingered
efforts in such a restricted growing environment; and revelling in the pleasure
and pride I felt that the blackbirds had honoured my plot again this year and
that their sheer perseverance in nest-building, in the grapevine overhanging
the pergola, had once again produced a brood.
Sinking into a lounger by the pond -
I pondered as to why someone would keep providing the same information for
appeal, having had it dismissed by the court previously. The familiar trickle
of the water-pump going about its bubbly business was comforting and reassuring
so I was unexpectedly overwhelmed with sorrow that this simple pleasure, and
the freedom I take for granted, is denied to those locked up for twenty three
hours a day; one hour in the exercise yard, which in winter is often after
dark.
I had to do - something.
I did not understand the process of
appeal back then. Since, I have learnt that the appellant has to provide
'fresh' evidence. How an innocent person is expected to find fresh evidence
whilst in prison, is another story. Prior to forwarding to the Court of Appeal
this fresh evidence has to be submitted to the Criminal Cases Review Commission
(CCRC), a body established in 1997 primarily to investigate miscarriages of
justice as more incidents were being revealed. The CCRC then decide whether the
case stands a chance of being heard by the Court of Appeal.
I knew Jeremy Bamber
was innocent.
I wasted little time in searching
on-line for contact information for Jeremy Bamber’s campaign team, sent a brief
email, can I help and how? I received a reply from a team administrator the
same day, greatly appreciative of my support, adding that speaking or writing
to my MP, John Whittingdale, would be the most useful, initial action to take.
Whittingdale, at that time, was also Jeremy Bamber’s MP though now rules have
been changed and a prisoner has to contact the MP in the locality of the prison
in which he or she is incarcerated. In 2011 Jeremy was in HMP Full Sutton,
Yorkshire, approximately 220 miles from his home village of Goldhanger, Essex.
I checked out the links on the Jeremy
Bamber Campaign website
and discovered copies of documents, police logs, statements and phone calls.
One particular piece of evidence held my attention. It was a log of a phone
call from Jeremy’s father, Nevill Bamber, to Essex Police at 03.26 on 7
August 1985 to report that his daughter, Sheila, had got one of his guns, ‘gone
berserk’. I rather naïvely thought that this phone log, along with other
documents, must have been overlooked by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)
and/or Jeremy’s defence team, and that once I had spoken with my MP, and
explained the mix up, he would surely see that a miscarriage of justice had
occurred and would want to help - after all he had even lived in the same village
as Jeremy and must have known the family.
The campaign team had particularly
wanted my MP’s help with ‘Freedom of Information’ (FOI) which is a request to
Essex Police requiring them to release other relevant documents which had not
been produced at trial. I booked a meeting with John Whittingdale at his
surgery and wrote to Jeremy. My letters to Jeremy are all handwritten and I
regret having not kept copies; though have saved some of my emails sent to him
via the email a prisoner service.
Jeremy’s first reply was dated 27
August 2011, five A4 sides, handwritten in capitals; he clearly wanted to
ensure his words were legible. He wrote of his childhood, his happy days at
Maldon Court School and his favourite teachers, Miss Carter and Miss Robinson.
Of his French lessons from aged six and the French au pairs that looked after
him, alongside his mother, until he was eight-and-a-half. He reflects on his
memories of a ‘lovely little school, happy days’ and recalls fondly how his
mother would nervously drive him up the steep Market Hill to school, even in
wet and icy weather.
Jeremy’s affection and respect for
his father shines through his writing. An agricultural farmer, Nevill grew and
sold various crops which Jeremy would deliver to local outlets. Pentland
Javelin potatoes grown especially for Copsey, a local fish restaurant. Jeremy
writes that recalling delivering potatoes to Copsey is full of happy memories.
The owner would give him a portion of chips made from them and Jeremy states,
‘No other potato, chips like it’. He asks me if the shop is still there and
speculates as to whether one of the sons now runs it. Copsey still exists and I
decide that in with my reply I would enclose a photo of the shop assuring
Jeremy that I ‘see’ us both there celebrating his freedom. Jeremy was also so
enthusiastic about my appointment with Whittingdale, said he had already
written to him. A tear springs to my eye as I re-read his words and recall
becoming infected with Jeremy’s enthusiasm and hope as he explained how some of
the police files which had been placed under Public Interest Immunity (PII) had
recently been sent to him inadvertently. He had only a small percentage of the
paperwork but said they referenced other non-disclosed documents and files and
that ‘John’ could have access to them if it would help him. He ended with
words, genuinely expressed but which I have read so many more times in the past
five years, ‘I’ll be out on bail soon’.
However, my new job-in-hand was to
focus on preparing for my meeting with my MP. I believed in Jeremy’s innocence
but I was new to the jargon, the ‘legalese’ and wanted to be, and sound,
confident.
3)
The ‘Law’
All
content is supported with documented evidence.
It was the 3 September 2011 when I
walked up Maldon High Street to the Moot Hall and to where my MP John
Whittingdale was holding his surgery.
I arrived in time for my appointment
to discover several other people already waiting. A fifty something male clerk,
I suppose one could call him, was standing ahead of a queue of people, they
appeared to be writing, I presumed it was to provide Whittingdale with a list
of constituents waiting to see him. When my turn came I was surprised to
discover that I was not shown a list of names but was given an A4 sheet of
paper with a box for my signature at the bottom. I asked what it was for and
the reply, ‘In case Mr Whittingdale has to do some work for you’. He said to
take a seat but as I had not been inside the Moot Hall before I spent my
waiting time taking in my surroundings. Eventually my name was called and I was
directed up a flight of stairs to a small room where Mr Whittingdale was
sitting at a desk. He indicated to the chair opposite. I sat down. He took the
sheet of paper whilst I took a deep breath…
As I walked home, mentally
regurgitating the tone and content of our meeting, my initial feeling was again
one of disbelief. Bet it would be a different story if it were one of his own!
Turning left into Market Hill instead
of going directly to my house, I made tracks down to where road bridge crosses
the River Blackwater. A member of the Turtle clan, according to the
Ameri-Indian tradition, I am drawn to water, its company provides a sympathetic
medium when faced with decisions, watching my troubles float out with the tide
or simply navel-gazing. Even when the tide is out, this historic
‘once-upon-a-time’ fishing village, which some folk, ignorant of its uniqueness
and the wildlife depending on it, refer to as, ‘Maldon on the Mud’, remains
precious to the likes of me. Maldon mud can be beautiful, when the setting sun
throws a veil of gold, amber, magenta and bronze across the salt marshes.
Stepping down from the shallow wall by the ‘Welcome Sailor’ public house, to
the delicious smell of the salt and crunch of empty mollusc shells, I review my
main points.
To my concerns about Essex Police
holding thousands of undisclosed documents on Jeremy Bamber which could help
prove his innocence, Whittingdale stated that he could not ‘interfere’ with the
law. When I asked to whom would I go when the very system set-up to facilitate
justice is itself involved in a miscarriage of justice? He assured me that
there is no-one, that he believes in the workings of our justice system - that
he, ‘believes in the law.’ However, Googling the case later, I discover that
Whittingdale did ‘interfere’ when in Parliament he had singled out Jeremy
Bamber and argued that he should not have access to the internet (in the UK
certain prisoners, for example for educational or legal reasons, may have
controlled and fully supervised access to the internet).
I had taken various documents to
leave with Whittingdale and had attempted to make reference to them but he
would not entertain even looking at them. He did say that he believed Jeremy
Bamber to be guilty, and that he is blaming everyone else instead of taking
responsibility for his actions; that he, Whittingdale, had been out to see the
relatives and ‘they don’t think much of him at all’.
Tempted to dismiss my effort as a
waste of time, I realised it was not - it was a revelation, I had learned a
valuable lesson. In regard to their constituents’ requests, MP’s are not
obliged to help or advise, are not unbiased, so what is Whittingdale’s role and
what is he being paid for? And - where is my signed sheet?
I did not know Jeremy’s adoptive
family background. I had read that at trial the jury
asked a question about
relatives’ possible motive to lie. The response being that family members were
wealthy in their own right therefore would have no reason to do so. Upon
researching the family tree I discover that this was not the case at the time
of trial. There had been a secret deal agreed about land farmed, though not
owned by, Ann and Peter Eaton and which was purchased for
them, as a favour, by Nevill Bamber.
Jeremy’s reply dated 9 September 2011
was very brief; just as well for me as when it dropped onto the door mat I was
still digesting his first letter, especially the closing paragraph,
‘…blind eyes being turned for
career progression. Ewen Smith, my appeal solicitor, becoming a CCRC
commissioner needs an explanation in the light of what we know - sad to think
it but the police sent him a file of PII material by mistake prior to my
appeal. As soon as the police realised they told Ewen he must not tell me or my
barrister about the contents of this file – he didn’t tell us! I wonder what
was in that file?’
In this latest, short letter,
one-and-a-bit A4 pages, Jeremy writes that he has been very busy. The QC case
files had arrived and he had found more documents hidden under PII revealing
that the QC had ten times the amount of documents he produced at trial or gave
to Jeremy’s legal team, also that the ‘great news’ was that John Whittingdale
was no longer his MP and the ‘office’, Jeremy’s short-cut for his campaign
team, had already found documented proof of what Essex Police did to corrupt
the case,
‘…full of juicy pieces of evidence
never before seen in the public arena, it’ll take three months to read them but
not to worry – I hope to be out on bail by then.’
In response to an email to
Whittingdale, requesting he return my signed sheet, I received a reply - to
imply - that it would not be used. To a second request, referring to the then,
on-going MP’s expenses revelations and accompanying outrage; in the post I
received a photo-copy of my signature which had clearly been cut from the
original document, leaving me to draw my own conclusions.
Having read police officer DI Wilkinson’s statement, my plan was to drive to Goldhanger
in the next few day, have a look at the sea-wall and the route that Wilkinson
implies that Jeremy Bamber could have cycled in the dark but Jeremy’s next
letter, revealing the cover up of the sound moderator (gun silencer) evidence,
provided me with a task which I felt took priority.
4) Fake forensics
All
content is supported with documented evidence.
Sixteen pages! A detailed letter from
Jeremy listing his findings regarding the sound moderator (gun silencer) which
the jury had been told was found in a gun cupboard by relatives, though after
the same cupboard had previously been searched by Essex Police and logged as
empty. Lots to digest. Got to be half-a-bottle of red’s worth.
Jeremy closed by asking if I would
write to various legal and justice departments, quoting his evidence - but as I
read and re-read the comprehensively evidenced letter I seriously doubted that
I could do its content adequate justice.
Jeremy summarised his main points
which I highlighted for use in my letter along with the organisations he had
asked me to contact.
Decided to delay my taste of the vine
until I had pondered a while, perhaps drive to Osea, walk my ‘girls’ along the
sea-wall? Having negotiated some of the campaign website I discovered that Osea
Caravan Site caretaker had been one of Jeremy’s job descriptions, his father
Nevill being the proprietor. Barbara De’Ath, a campaign supporter, paints a
revealing canvas of the area in the mid 1980s.
Fighting to engage the ageing gears
as I back my little red KA off the drive, I curse this rapidly expiring banger
- more money - never ending; then, as was becoming a habit, I dwell once more
on what it must be like not to be free to do that very thing. Jeremy has
probably forgotten what it is like to drive; he did say when asked what he
missed on the outside, that he could not remember what life was like on the
outside. I so hope his next appeal is successful. How can the Criminal Case
Review Commission (CCRC) not refer it? OK maybe a few years ago, before this
new evidence came to light but not now, surely, with his father’s telephone log
and the forensics, false and altered statements and police corruption?
The sea air had inflated me with hope
and I drove back feeling encouraged and enthused. Quickly fed and settled the
dogs then rummaged around for the bottle opener. For a little more
encouragement I grabbed my lap-top and searched for the link I had saved of
Jeremy’s conversation with the Guardian’s Eric Allison.
I had to read Jeremy’s letter a few
more times, as if cramming for an exam. I did not want to ramble and lose my
‘audience’ but at the same time it was vital I included pertinent paragraphs. I
wrote several drafts before settling on the final format and content though
feel that I could make a better fist of it now that I am more familiar with
Jeremy’s case and legal procedures. I then emailed it and posted hard copies by
Recorded Delivery.
Jeremy had named every scientist and
member of staff who worked on the moderator evidence at Huntingdon Laboratory.
Upon reading, it is clear which of those scientists perjured themselves, those
who were likely unaware of the collusion and contamination of evidence and
those who oversaw the deception, they being mainly various police officers. He
adds, 'If you want to see the actual docs yourself ask the 'office' quote
the refs and they'll show you.’
Going over this again in 2016 knowing
that Jeremy’s appeal application was not successful, I am aware of the rage
erupting in my gut, along with the need for justice - not just that, the desire
for revenge. We were so hopeful. I will not act upon it; I am impotent in that
area anyway but more importantly it would not help Jeremy. He cannot afford to
waste energy on revenge; and any anger he feels I imagine he utilises in
perfecting his investigation. There’s that lump in my throat again as I recall
being told that in the early days, before my involvement and pre-internet,
Jeremy would send handwritten drafts to his supporters asking if they would
print off flyers to circulate. All those years…
Friday 28 October 2011 brings further
positive news. Jeremy writes that everything is ‘happy, happy with the case,
and we are finding lots of new stuff’, for use in December for his appeal.
He says he would love to tell me everything but he must not, which is hard for
him as ‘I cannot keep my own secrets’, though he does allow me in
on some of his findings.
Essex Police had asserted that they
had photographic evidence supporting their claim that Jeremy had accessed the
house on the night of the murders via the shower room window, using a hacksaw
blade. When requested by the CCRC, the City of London Police (COLP) and the
courts, to reveal in what order these photographs were taken, Essex Police were
at a loss as to how to do that, even though recording photographs with times,
dates and names of photographers was deemed standard practice. Jeremy writes,
‘until finally I get disclosed to
me four hundred and two case negatives and after fifty hours work I can place
every photo in the order it was taken and name each photographer and the
relevant statement accompanying it… I discovered that the reason Essex Police
didn’t want to do this was because they had perjured themselves when they said
they found a hacksaw blade as the photos show this was not the case.’
Jeremy closes with, 'Onwards
and upwards. Lots of love and thanks mate for your support.'
Then a post script, 'I've just re-read this, I hope you can follow what I'm
saying - I'm up for questions - as many as you want.'
5) And so it continues
All
content is supported with documented evidence.
Rising and falling with the swell, my
eyes absorb the view and the translucent blue of the River Blackwater gleaming
in the sunshine. Having driven up Head Street, past the house where Jeremy had
lived, then slight left to park outside St Peter’s church in Goldhanger, I
placed the lever-arch file in which I keep Jeremy’s letters and other relevant
documents into the bag-on-wheels I finally purchased after seeing a much
younger woman with one. I had been too proud, even though I had needed such a
thing since a back injury many moons ago, I had refused to buy not wanting to
be labelled , ‘elderly’. Idiot! Made my way down Fish Street, then left across
the fields to the sea wall.
The letter I pull from the file is
dated 27 March 2012. Very brief, Jeremy is looking forward to a television
programme to be aired a few days hence. It will contain peer-reviewed reports
from experienced and highly respected ballistics experts, from both the UK and
the US. The aim of the programme, I anticipate, is to show that the wounds on
Nevill Bamber were created with the barrel of the rifle and not the moderator,
thus placing into doubt the judges conclusion when he led the jury to find
Jeremy guilty on the evidence of the moderator alone.
I recall the ITV programme well, and
remember tweeting about it over the following days. I was furious as to why a
TV producer would take a genuine and credible piece of scientific investigation
then use it to air negative views including fabrication by ex-police officers
and others.
Judging by the tone of Jeremy’s next
letter it was clear that my views on this rubbish piece of television were
obviously fed back to him. I suspected I knew the culprit and discovered a
piece of slanderous text this person had posted on a forum. This same person
had been bombarding me with emails on a daily basis, fourteen in one single
day. I dealt with it accordingly. Jeremy blogged his response to the programme, 'Tonight'.
I replied to Jeremy on my feelings
both in regard to the programme and on my freedom to express my opinion in
whatever way I choose providing it is legal.
During that year Jeremy had asked me
to write to various individuals and organisations about the evidence he was
finding in these files. Upsetting to think that his case worker at the CCRC
withheld photographs and paperwork, for over five years, which supported
Jeremy’s innocence and seemingly blatantly lied to him, stating there was
nothing significant in them. He left the CCRC shortly after that. Jeremy
provided me with his name; said he had complained to this worker’s manager over
one hundred times and at that stage had received no substantial response.
With the tide fully up and with it a
bit of a breeze I decide to call it a day but as I place the papers back in
their date order my hands fall onto an A4 envelope containing copies of the
police logs which Jeremy had asked me to send to the media in December 2012.
They are written by a PC West on a carbonated pad and have clearly been altered
and edited, which is illegal. I was keen to help though the media already had
in their possession and published what I believe to be the most significant
piece of evidence, that being a copy of Nevill’s telephone call to the police;
referenced elsewhere.
Before I had the chance to prepare a
covering document, in the next post Jeremy wrote that his solicitor had advised
him not to contact the media and to send the copies to my MP only. I knew that
sending them to Whittingdale would get me nowhere, and I was sadly proven
right.
Checking my emails on arriving home I
am pleased to find one from Jeremy’s campaign team with a link to an article in
the Express newspaper, referring to
Jeremy’s sister, Sheila Caffell and new evidence on what is thought to be her
suicide letter. The publicity is helpful but it irritates me greatly that they
still insist on referring to Jeremy as a 'mass murderer'. He is not guilty!
So yet another piece of evidence
supporting Jeremy’s innocence and withheld by the police. I want to know why. I
want to know who profited, apart from the relatives gaining the land and
Jeremy’s inheritance. I want to know how this was allowed to happen and
continues to happen. Why are the organisations set up to prevent and expose
injustice, the very ones who foster it? Stephen Lawrence, Barry George,
Birmingham Six, Eddie Gilfoyle,
Hillsborough, and more.
Reflecting on my meeting with
Whittingdale and his words when I had concluded my case; they being that Jeremy
Bamber blames everyone else, when instead he should take responsibility for the
crime. Of course my point is that, not only can Jeremy name those responsible,
he has the documented proof. I do not defend Whittingdale’s response in the
face of the evidence before him but I do understand his thought processes. It
is hard to accept that not just one department in the UK justice system but
many, colluded in the lie and what is it that made this particular group of
people do so? Now it might be that Mugford, the relatives and Essex Police were
subject to different motivations. Mugford was jealous and possibly frightened
of the outcome for her as she was being charged with various criminal offences
including drug smuggling and maintained that she had known, for some time, that
Jeremy was planning to kill all his family, including young boys, so where did
that leave her credibility and integrity? The relatives were threatened with
losing their financial status; Essex Police officers? Perhaps panicked as to
the repercussions should it be revealed that Sheila was alive in the kitchen
and they could have saved her; or maybe they did fire the fatal bullet? They
also bodged the crime scene by using it as a training ground for over fifty
rookies, but from whose mouth did the decision emanate that this young man was
dispensable so must be disposed of? Who was/is powerful enough to ensure the
lie was manufactured, given life and continues to be fed?
What is it about ‘group think’? What
is it that encourages and promotes this, above-the-law belief and allows a
police officer, for example, to feel he/she has the ‘divine right’ to behave in
ways about which a more rational, responsible person may think twice? Only a
week or so ago, in the news, we heard of yet another police car-chase ending in
tragedy. What made the driver and his fellow police officers feel so disengaged
or lacking in accountability that they considered driving at alarming speeds,
chasing someone who had stolen a car - not committed a murder - through an area
where there were pedestrians at risk? Couldn’t they have waited until he
stopped, ran out of petrol or use CCTV to track him? What kind of structure of
training assures them that it is acceptable to act like delinquents whilst the
rest of the population is criminalised for the same behaviours?
The dynamics of groups has been
studied and written about in depth by those more qualified than myself though I
do know something about group-think, due to my past experiences especially
within religious groups and cults - and families! In his book, ‘People of the
Lie’ about collective ‘evil’, M Scott Peck 1) (writing in the 1990s)
lists certain personality traits prevalent in those who join groups. For
example, the army, the priesthood and the police force, now officially known as
the more user-friendly, Police Service. Peck maintains that a certain type of
individual is attracted to certain groups and that a person does not become a
police officer by accident. Broadly speaking he writes that the background of
someone attracted to the police service is lower middle-class, is aggressive
and conventional; Scott speculates that police work allows for a certain amount
of aggression in the ‘service of the law’. This group of individuals are
distinctly different from other types, for example graduates in English or the
Arts, or anti-war demonstrators. Other contributory influences may be, a
damaged family background, a need to belong and restricted self-awareness. Peck
further states that society at large colludes with these criteria as it wants
aggressive, conventional people to represent its police service. Those
employees who feel uncomfortable with the expectations of their role, may
resign and others, as I can verify due to my counselling work with Essex
Police, (officers of all ranks and civilians) can feel a build up of stress,
often leading to emotional or physical illness or have felt so pressured to
conform they may mentally breakdown.
Closing my laptop my thoughts drift
to Jeremy's most recent letter. An intelligent man, he likes to keep up with
new ideas and technology and has shared his knowledge through teaching a
variety of courses in whichever establishment he has found himself locked up
'at her majesty's pleasure'. I had asked for a run down of his jobs and presume
they will be in this, unusually 'to be signed for' letter, though always
bubbling at the back of my mind is that it will contain news that justice has
prevailed with his imminent release.
The successful outcome of the
forensics on Sheila’s suicide letter will be the catalyst for another referral
to the CCRC and an appeal - and not before time but - I do not trust the
system. There, I have said it, but so want to be proven wrong.
1) Peck, M Scott. (1990) ‘People of
the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil’, Arrow Books
