previously taken into foster care,
due to their mother, Sheila Caffell's mental health problems. Essex
Police denied this but here are the facts, plus the names of the foster carers
and social services staff 2).
WHF secretary, Barbara
Wilson, for reasons known only to herself, changed her positive testimony
about Jeremy Bamber to a negative one. Her original police statement 1).
Barbara Wilson died within weeks of
contributing to a further, slanderous, TV programme about Jeremy
Bamber, on Channel 5 in 2014, so cannot be challenged further as to her motives
for concealing the truth.
The following is Jeremy Bamber's response to
another programme, ITV's 'Tonight', in March 2012 which, before
airing, professed to be providing a 'balanced' view and although
it showed evidence of the burns on Nevill's body which were consistent with the
nozzle of the rifle and NOT the moderator, one has to question why
the imbalance of contributors in favour of the
prosecution? Where's the balance between black and white? How can one
'balance' the truth with falsehood?
The ITV 1 'Tonight’ programme on the 29th
March 2012 gave the viewer a good insight into the new ballistics evidence,
pathology evidence and new forensic matters relating to a sound moderator. My
trial in 1986 centred on a sound moderator and the Judge told the jury: ‘It’s a
fact, the sound moderator was on the rifle during a struggle in the kitchen between
Nevill Bamber and his assailant'. The Judge, we now know, was completely wrong to
tell the jury this was as ‘fact’ as no evidence exists to suggest that a sound
moderator featured in this incident at all.
The 'Tonight' programme was able to confirm
that the Crown’s case that relates to a sound moderator being on the rifle was,
and is, without foundation. Producers commissioned Mr Philip Boyce to undertake
a number of forensic experiments that confirmed and further validated the
American forensic expert’s testimony for the defence.
There were a number of other witnesses for
the prosecution who appeared on the
programme. The viewer may have been left with the impression that the defence
cannot answer the questions raised by the interviews. Set out below in the
briefest possible quotes are answers to the most important of the questions
raised.
These
quotes are taken from the HOLMES 2 computer system which is the Home Office Database.
The references are those designated by the Police.
1)
Barbara Wilson, Secretary at N&J
Bamber Ltd
Barbara Wilson (HOLMES 47/11) was interviewed pre-trial
by Chief Inspector Dickinson.
She was asked:-
Q: How did you find Jeremy?
A: Very pleasant, no
qualms, always okay with me. Probably got on better with him than my
own son (Philip). He was a likeable jovial fellow.
Q: Ever say anything nasty
about parents, Sheila or the twins?
A: No, never heard him say
anything bad at all.
D.S Stan Jones has written intended police actions. (HOLMES 45/22)
A58 re background etc from Barbara Wilson (Maldon, 860379
from Darcy Way, Tol. Darcy). She is
secretary to the Bambers and apparently at some time before the incident Sheila
said words to the effect that 'all people are bad and should be killed' (Ann
Eaton told me this in confidence).
Obviously DS Jones didn’t obtain a witness
statement from Barbara Wilson about what Sheila had said to her, neither
Barbara Wilson or Ann Eaton have spoken about this during the numerous
interviews they have given over the years.
At trial, the
Crown portrayed me as not telling the truth over the suggestion that there was a
conversation between Sheila and my parents over fostering on the night of the
tragedies. Barbara Wilson knew that this was true but stayed silent about it in
court but;
(HOLMES 73/38) reveals that Essex Police knew that the
issue of foster care for the boys was true.
Essex Police did not disclose this fact to
the Court because Ann Eaton, David and Robert Boutflour gave witness testimony
that they knew Nevill and June Bamber would never ever consider ‘any such
nonsense’ so for the Police to prove otherwise would portray David, Robert and
Ann as witnesses who either knew very little about the personal life of Sheila and
the twins, or as people who were prepared to mislead the Court in an attempt to
portray me as a liar.
2)
Essex Police had taken detailed witness
testimony from Judy Jackson, Mary Lester and Barbara Babic who had acted as
foster parents to Daniel and Nicholas. Essex Police had also taken witness
statements from Social Services personnel Michael Abel, Susan Elliott-Brown,
Sheila Lloyd and Julie Wilkes about Sheila’s care of the twins, or other
assistance possibilities. Essex Police also had witness testimony from some of
June Bamber’s friends who stated that she had been asking locally if anyone
could recommend someone who could offer foster care for the boys
It may be the case that Barbara Wilson has
told the media that she knew about fostering, and this information has been
edited out of her interview. What is known is that Essex Police have deliberately
concealed what Barbara Wilson could have told the court, this was deliberately
to disadvantage the Defence and mislead the jury.
DI Ron Cook Head of
Chelmsford Scenes of Crime Department August 1985.
DI Cook and the findings of the investigation between 7.8.85
& 7.9.85
DI Ron Cook who appeared on the 'Tonight'
programme ought to have been asked the obvious question:-
‘The evidence now proves that the sound
moderator was not involved in any way in this awful tragedy. Accordingly, it’s
now impossible to explain how red paint came to be impacted into the knurl of
the sound moderator found by David Boutflour.
Furthermore, the scratches and gouge marks in the red painted Aga
surround that were forensically attributed to having been made by a sound
moderator can now be photographically proven to have been made 5 weeks after
the event on the 12th September 1885'.
Between 7th August and 6th September 1985,
Essex Police had investigated this case thoroughly. This was because from the
9th of August onwards, Ann Eaton and Robert Boutflour had been trying to
convince Essex Police that I had to be guilty of murdering my family. They had
meetings at Witham Police Station, rang individual police officers dozens of
times, were showing them around 'White House Farm', pointing out everything
from footprints to empty tampon holders, and Robert even brought in the help of
Robbie Carr, a Metropolitan Police Sergeant, to badger Essex Police on their
behalf.
After a month, Robert saw Assistant Chief
Constable Peter Simpson to complain that nothing had been found to suggest that
I was connected to the tragedies. On the 6th September, Mr Simpson appointed DS
Kenneally to review every aspect of this investigation. (HOLMES 7/18) reveals the outcome of this review at a 6:00pm meeting
at headquarters. Accordingly to DI Ainsley, DS Kenneally
presented his report to the Chief Constable Robert Bunyard, Assistant Chief
Constable Peter Simpson and DCI Ainsley, Head of Essex C.I.D.
His final conclusion is minuted as this:-
'That all the evidence indicated that
Sheila WAS responsible'.
It is interesting to note in (HOLMES 36/306) that David Boutflour is relating that he
gave his own sound moderator to Essex Police, ‘fairly shortly after they had
established there was blood in the sound moderator.' The match-head sized blood
flake was found in the sound moderator on the 12th September 1985. Oddly, Essex
Police have no documented record of David handing in two additional sound
moderators in September 1985, though he still speaks freely to the media that
it actually happened.
It is also reported in the same document that
David Boutflour says:-
‘Heard privately that DCI 'Taff' Jones had
said ‘if Jeremy Bamber had (done it) we couldn’t prove it, so what’s the point?’
DI Miller, even DS Stan Jones seemed adamant that it was suicide'.
There are many others documents and
statements which illustrate the point that the police found no evidence against
me and that DCI Jones took the relatives personal circumstances into
consideration when making decisions.
Julie Mugford and Elizabeth (Liz) Rimmington
Essex Police were convinced on the basis of
all available evidence that Sheila had killed the family and committed suicide.
On the 7th September 1985 Elizabeth Rimmington telephoned Witham Police Station
to say that Julie Mugford was withholding vital evidence in the White House
Farm enquiry. This was at 4pm. This telephone call was documented as: Telephone
Report Number One. The exact content of this telephone call from Ms Rimmington
is still a mystery as Essex Police continue to withhold this document from the Defence.
This is the sequence of events:
5:00pm DS Stan Jones goes to the address of
Malcolm Waters and takes Julie Mugford into custody. (HOLMES 64/13 and 1/12)
While in custody at Witham Julie asked that
her father is contacted so she can talk to him. (HOLMES 5/10)
Julie Mugford was interviewed under caution.
(HOLMES 1/49)
7:00pm to 10:40pm DS Jones and DI Miller
interviewed Julie together.
11:00pm to 02:00am DCI Jones interviewed
Julie.
The taped record and written record of Julie
Mugford’s interviews on 7th September 1985 remain undisclosed.
Brett Collins, Mathew MacDonald, Christine
Bacon and I were all arrested on the 8th September with:-
‘Suspicion of being concerned with the murder
of June and Nevill Bamber, Sheila, Daniel and Nicholas Caffell'.
So, there is every reason to suspect that
Julie was taken into custody for the same reason. Whilst in police custody, Julie confessed to
cultivating and selling cannabis, burglary, a bank fraud, and to possession of
drugs. Other documents from the City of London Police detail that she admitted
smuggling cannabis into the UK from Canada. The majority of the offences she
confessed to were not connected with me in any way. She admitted to using cocaine
in her 10th September 1985 statement, when she and Ms Rimmington had gone back
to a hotel with two men they had just met.
Around the same time, Ms Rimmington stated
that Julie had told her she’d broken up with me and ‘you don’t know the half of
it.’ Liz said that Julie's lucky that ‘she's broken up'; she went on to
tell Julie that she had been sleeping with me behind Julie’s back.
Julie says she told Ms Rimmington that 'Jeremy
had told her he’d paid a hit man to kill the family.' Ms Rimmington states
in her 8th September 1985 statement that from the 1st September she had told
Julie repeatedly to go to the Police. Julie had refused to go.
Ms Rimmington states in her 15th September
statement that on the 6th of September she and Julie had booked and paid to go
on holiday to Malta together on the 8th September for seven days. Ms Rimmington
does not explain why she then reported Julie to Essex Police for withholding evidence
in a murder enquiry on the 7th September, the day after paying for their
holiday and a day before they were due to fly off to Malta.
The Sound Moderator and the Painted Mantle
On the 6th September, DS Kenneally reports
that the evidence shows that ‘Sheila was responsible’ and on the 7th September
Julie is said to have withheld ‘that Jeremy had hired a hit man to murder his
family.’ DI Ron Cook now had to go back to White House Farm and prove it,
helped by Ann Eaton who pointed out the windows allegedly used to get in and
out of the house, and a mysterious footprint on a magazine under the said
window. I was arrested on the 8th September and released on the 13th September
1985.
It was not until the 12th September that DS
Jones mentions for the first time after questioning me for more than 20 hours
over four days that forensics had recovered a sound moderator from the scene. (PAGE 104 JB Interview transcript) D.S.
Jones stated that this was found to have red paint on it and:-
‘I believe the red paint comes from the WALL
in the kitchen where the stove is'.
At the trial, the Jury were told that the
scratch marks were found on the underside of the mantle shelf in the kitchen of
White House Farm by Ann Eaton, DI Ron Cook and DS Stan Jones on the evening of
the 14th August 1985.
Examination of photographs taken by DC Bird
on the 12th September, under the instruction of DI Ron Cook, (of the kitchen at
White House Farm) reveals that the Aga’s red painted surround is unmarked (see Police Reference YELLOW LABEL 34, also
given a second reference WHITE LABEL
0010).
The roll of 50mm acetate film consisting of 10
negatives in a single strip. DC Bird confirms in his 22nd October witness statement that he took
this roll of film whilst at ‘White House Farm’ with DI Ron Cook on the *12th
September from 10:30 am onwards.
*NEGATIVE SEVEN shows the red painted Aga
surround completely unmarked, free of any scratches or gouges. *NEGATIVE NINE is a photograph of exactly the
same area of the Aga’s red coloured surround. In this photograph, a
large horse shoe shaped scratch mark and a gouge mark can be seen. These
marks are identical to those later attributed to having been made by the sound
moderator.
When DI Ron Cook was interviewed for the
'Tonight' programme, it is wondered why he was not asked to explain how the red
painted Aga surround came to be scratched and gouged on the 12th September
1985. Was it by accident or was it that DI Ron Cook was under so much pressure
to find something to link a hit man to the scene that David Boutflour’s sound
moderator was used to scratch and gouge the paint work?
Until DI Cook explains how the Aga surround
was damaged on the 12th September as PHOTOGRAPHS SEVEN and NINE prove
conclusively, the public must accept that the cause of damage to the Aga
surround remains unknown.
Police in the Spotlight of Media Pressure
The press at the time of my arrest and
release between the 8th and 13th September and prior to me being charged on the
29th September were stating that:-
(10th
September 'Gazette')
‘A
number of persons, both male and female, are assisting with these enquiries.’
(18th
September 'Gazette')
‘In
the face of mounting public concern over the way the investigation was handled.’
(15th
September 'News of the World')
‘Detectives
may have bungled by destroying vital clues’.
‘A 22
year old woman guarded by armed Police'.
(29th
September 'News of the World')
‘Now
they have been given vital new evidence by 22 year old student Julie Mugford'.
‘Julie
had also been given police protection'.
‘Julie
now in hiding said ‘I’ve told the police everything I know'.
‘She
revealed that she had broken off her 3 year relationship with 24 year old
Jeremy.’
(18th
September 1985 'Daily Mirror')
‘This
was not the bumbling fictional detective…even Inspector Clouseau could not have
made such fundamental mistakes'.
(14th
October 'The Times')
‘Police
jobs at risk in farm deaths enquiry'.
‘The
jobs of at least three senior officers are thought to be at risk'.
(20th
October 'Sunday Express)
‘A
key witness in a murder enquiry is under 24 hour (police) protection'.
‘It
was after Miss Mugford volunteered fresh information about the case that
detectives moved her to a ‘safe’ house used by the Police'.
‘Miss
Mugford was in Court last week when Bamber made a court appearance. She had disguised
herself by bleaching her hair and restyling it'.
During this media outcry Essex Police were
trying to gather evidence against me.
Julie Mugford Charged with Burglary
DS Jones explained in his 16th June 2002
statement that Julie was not arrested or charged.
‘In Essex at the time we either arrested and
charged people or we reported them for process and they were bailed'.
'Julie was reported for cheque frauds,
burglary and for growing cannabis'.
In a fax dated 5th December 1985 from Chief
Crown Prosecutor Mr Adams to Mr East it states in a handwritten addendum:-
‘I agree that she should not be prosecuted. I
also agree that the burglary charge can be withdrawn'.
This makes DS Jones out to be misleading, as
Julie was arrested and charged with burglary and the jury were entitled to have
known of this inducement.
In a fax to Anthony Arlidge Q.C. for the
Crown, dated 27th January 1986, it states:-
‘Miss Mugford has now been advised of the
Director’s decision not to prosecute her, and warned her that she will be
required as a witness against Bamber'.
The C.P.S. wrote on the 19th July 1991:-
‘I set out in a note that Mugford should be
used as a prosecution witness. This resulted in the decision that Julie Mugford
would not be prosecuted for offences disclosed against her, but would be used
as a prosecution witness'.
The Judge, had he known about this deal to
withdraw criminal proceedings against Julie in exchange for her testimony
against me, would have been required to give the equivalent direction to the
jury that later became known as the:- ‘MAKAM JOULA 1995- DIRECTION'.
Julie Mugford & NOTW Deal
The 'Tonight' programme said that Julie
Mugford had sold her story to 'The News of the World.' On the 9th October 1986,
Anthony Arlidge Q.C. told the Trial Judge and Defence Council in Chambers, and
this was repeated to the jury in open Court that:-
‘Julie Mugford has given me her assurance
that she has not sold her story to a newspaper, and she has no intention of
doing so'.
This was wholly misleading. Julie Mugford in
her 11th April 2002 witness statement admitted that she had sold her story to
'The News of the World' for twenty-five thousand pounds. This was later ruled
in breach of guidelines by the Press Complaints Council, though she was not
made to pay the money back. Julie swore in 2002 under oath that on the day of
the verdict she was in a hotel paid for by 'The News of the World'. Her
solicitor had drawn up the contract a month after I was arrested. This is
consistent with 'The News of the World' naming Julie Mugford as being
interviewed by them on the 29th September 1985.
It is also telling that Julie must have known
she was going to receive a large cash payout in due course as she stopped work
in March 1986 and ran up an overdraft until the trial in October 1986.
Julie Mugford’s bank statements also reveal
that the £400 cheque I had given her in August 1985, to help pay for a holiday,
was cashed on the 17th September 1985, 7 days after Julie had been taken into
custody accusing me of hiring a hit man to murder my family, yet she was happy
to go on to spend the money I had given her.
Sheila’s Handling of Weapons
David Boutflour and Peter Eaton had told both
the court and the police that they had seen Sheila handling a gun. Essex Police
knew that Sheila was able to handle a gun, but again the Court was led to
believe that she was unable to do so.
In 1991, Peter Eaton told the City of London
Police (HOLMES 36/308) that Sheila
had been seen with a gun during a shooting holiday in Scotland. This appears in
the hand written version of the City of London Police witness statement. For some
odd reason this key piece of witness testimony is missing from the typed
version disclosed to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (Formerly the
PCA) and the Defence.
Did the 'Tonight' programme have enough time
to ask these witnesses some key questions?
PS Bews should have been asked why he was now
suggesting that it was me who was misleading police officers when he never said
this before in any of his statements, neither did any other police officer. The
programme accidentally transposed the order of events; the firearms team was
called after the reconnaissance of the house where the movement was seen in the
window. Here is the relevant extract from PS Bews trial transcript:
Rivlin: ‘Do you remember at some stage early
on…one of your police officers said that you thought you could see a shadow and
you all jumped?’
Bows: ‘Yes, that is when we first went to the
house with Mr Bamber. We had gone round what I thought was the back. We had
seen the kitchen door with the light on. We then went into a field which is at
the side of the farm house and went round to where what is - - I believe the
front door is and above that is a window. As we moved away I thought we saw something
else move, a shadow, something like that. We looked up and after looking for a couple
of minutes I was satisfied that it was a - - perhaps a part in the glass that
just shone the light slightly as you looked at it'.
Rivlin: ‘It could have been a trick of the
light?’
Bews: ‘I think it was a trick of the light'.
I’ve said before that there was no light
source to reflect in the glass, PS Bews has also recently stated in a ‘Guardian’
interview that it could have been the moon, which was unlikely as it was
overcast and the moon was on the other side of the house and so would not have
thrown light on the windows. Even Bews trial transcript contradicts itself: a shadow
would imply a dark shape, but he goes on to state that the ‘glass shone the
light'.
Barbara Wilson, DI Ron Cook and David
Boutflour should all have been asked something to challenge them in relation to
their evidence, especially DI Cook who must know who damaged the Aga surround
paint work, and why they did so. Showing NEGATIVE SEVEN and NEGATIVE NINE
to DI Cook on camera, and asking him to account for how the paint work came to
be scratched and gouged may have made great television.
Of course, both Essex Police and many of the
prosecution’s witnesses have numerous other important questions to answer-but
answering the few questions set out above would go a long way to explaining how
it was that the jury wrongly reached a 10:2 majority verdict of guilty against
me.
