Jeremy Bamber murder conviction in doubt after review by gun experts

By
Lee Moran

Last updated at 10:20 AM on 5th February 2012


Jailed: Jeremy Bamber is taken away by police after his murder trial in 1986

Jailed: Jeremy Bamber is taken away by police after his murder trial in 1986

Gun experts claim to have unearthed new evidence which could clear convicted killer Jeremy Bamber of a notorious 1985 multiple murder.

Bamber was jailed after he was found guilty of killing his adoptive parents June and Nevill, his sister Sheila Caffell and her six-year-old twins Daniel and Nicholas, at their Essex farmhouse.

But he has always denied the murders – and a new legal team has now suggested that a silencer, the discover of which was crucial to his conviction, was never used on the gun that caused their deaths.

It puts his role in the crime in doubt, and subsequently points the finger at his schizophrenic 28-year-old sister who, police believed in the immediate aftermath of the killings, had murdered her parents and sons before turning the gun on herself.

That theory was declared void when, in the days following the shooting, a silencer with Caffell’s blood was found in a cupboard at the farm.

Prosecutors at his trial at Chelmsford Crown Court in 1986 said that if her blood was on the weapon, then she could not have shot herself and then hidden it in the cupboard.

The jury, which had unusually been told that the murders could only have been carried out by Bamber or his sister, was also told by the judge that the silencer ‘could, on its own, lead them to believe that Bamber was guilty’.

But the verdict has now been thrown into doubt with the conclusions of a peer-reviewed pathology assessment of the evidence relating to her death.

The findings, obtained by the Observer, suggest that a silencer – so pivotal to Bamber’s conviction – was never used.

Bamber's sister Sheila and her children Daniel and Nicholas who were all found to have been killed by him. New evidence throws the verdict into doubt

Family: Bamber’s sister Sheila and her children Daniel and Nicholas who were all found to have been killed by him. New evidence throws the verdict into doubt

Adoptive parents Nevill and June were shot during the rampage at their farmhouse in Essex. Bamber has always denied murder

Adoptive parents Nevill and June, who were shot during the rampage at their farmhouse in Essex. Bamber has always denied murder

Firearms experts working for Dr John Manlove, an Oxfordshire-based forensic scientist, said that evidence that the fatal wounds were fired by a rifle without a silencer were backed up by fresh analysis of burn marks on Nevill Bamber’s back.

He told the Observer: ‘From its size and shape, this mark could possibly have been caused by the hot muzzle of a firearm, without a sound moderator.’

A report by the chief medical examiner of the U.S. state of Maryland, David Fowler, said: ‘In my professional opinion, the [burn marks] complex just described of the lower entrance and two abrasions is consistent with the rifle not having a silencer.’

And his theory that no silencer was used is supported by Ljubisa Dragovic, chief medical examiner of Oakland county in Michigan, and Marcella Fierro, former chief medical examiner of Virginia.

Idyllic: The family home in Essex where the shootings took place. Experts have suggested Bamber's schizophrenic sister was the one responsible

Idyllic: The family home in Essex where the shootings took place. Experts have suggested Bamber’s schizophrenic sister was the one responsible

Leeds-based Simon McKay, Bamber’s new solicitor advocate, said: ‘The evidence of three senior and respected pathologists that the wounds to Sheila Caffell are consistent with the rifle having been fired without the silencer fitted shakes the safety of Jeremy Bamber’s convictions to their core.

‘The fresh expert evidence aligns itself with what police officers found at the scene on the morning of the killings and the combined views of those who assessed the position then: namely, and tragically, [that] Sheila Caffell murdered her family, then took her own life.’

And he said that the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which rejected Bamber’s last attempt to win freedom 12 months ago, now had no option but to refer the case.

He added: ‘A picture is emerging that exculpates Jeremy Bamber and implicates his sister.’

The jury struggled to reach a verdict in the trial and returned with a 10-2 majority.

 

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The comments below have been moderated in advance.

Who put the ‘silencer’ back into the cupboard after the murders? How could any of the victims put it back? They were dead.
– Rob, London, UK, 05/2/2012 10:53 . . . . . . . . Someone else who cannot be bothered to read before commenting

I think we’ve been here before! The elephant in the room is a silencer with her blood on it put away in a cupboard ?? Perhaps all the Jeremy Bamber supporters can explain this. Guilty as charged I’m afraid.

Forensically what we know about the intricacies of crime scenes has moved on so much since this crime. We are not privy to all of the facts but I would say if there is so much doubt of course it’s worth reviewing. This man has been in prison a very long time and if that is for a crime he didn’t commit, it has to be worth tax payer money.

I have long held concerns about this affair – partiucularly relevant based on my knowledge of how bad the british justice system is at admitting its own errors. I also believe this will be proven to be an unsafe conviction – and bear in mind the guy could have been out by now, but is still protesting his innocence…. that is all that keeps him in there. that alone should raise a reasonable persons concerns.

Jeremy is without an alibi; a curious deficiency or a terrible oversight for an infamous family murderer. There was an arrogant quality to him and it appeared to surprise nobody when police originally charged him….but did they frame him? The question continues to deeply trouble some who have studied the case.
There is only one prospect of his complete release from the accusation and that rests in finding proof he was framed. Otherwise the stain remains when his guilt or innocence cannot be known with a better degree of certainty.

This is one of the reasons we cannot have hanging.The police have withheld evidence in previous cases to secure a conviction .May be not so much in this case but who know,s ,It seems they don,t care who committed a crime as long as they get some one for it. Alan

Guilty people do NOT spend their whole lives protesting their innocence. Protesting is the most physical mental torture you can do, I have never come across a guilty person who was capable of keeping this up, but an innocent will go through breakdown after breakdown but they will never give up. That in itself is enough for me to have doubt over the conviction.

Jeremey Bamber surely wouldn’t have put a blood-stained silencer back in the cupboard if he’d done the murders himself. If he did the murders he would have hidden the silencer where it couldn’t be found by anyone.

And the fact that he had told his then girlfriend of what he had done counts for nothing? This fellow is where he belongs. And until the end of his days he will try to con the system. When this lot fails to win him his freedom he will find something else.

I grew up near the family – I will never believe he is innocent.

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