A new documentary reveals crucial evidence that could help to prove Jeremy Bamber’s innocence.
Jeremy Bamber, who is now 65, was convicted in 1986 at Essex Crown Court for murdering five members of his family, including his adoptive parents, sister, and her two twin sons. Jeremy Bamber has always denied committing the offences.
A new Channel 5 documentary, Jeremy Bamber: Proof of Innocence – The Missing Phone Call, followed up on a previous investigation into the case by journalist Heidi Blake from the New Yorker and highlights crucial evidence that was not presented to the jury at trial. It revealed that a phone call to 999 had been logged as coming from inside the farmhouse at 6:09am. The original call handler, Nicolas Milbank, told Blake he heard ‘movement or voices in the background’ which indicated someone was alive in the house at this time. This evidence would be critical to supporting Jeremy Bamber’s claim of innocence by suggesting that someone was alive in the farmhouse at this time, and thereby providing him with a definitive alibi because he was stood outside with the police at this time. The 6.09am phone call instead gives significant weight to the police’s original theory that the crime was a murder-suicide committed by Jeremy’s adoptive sister, Sheila, who was found inside the farmhouse with what appeared to be self-inflicted gunshot wounds later that morning.
The documentary also discussed further evidence that Bamber’s sister, Sheila, had been having suicidal thoughts in the period leading up to the murders. Letters were apparently recovered from the crime scene which supported the police’s original theory of the crime being a ‘murder-suicide’. In the documentary, Dr. Sohom Das, forensic psychiatrist, confirms that Sheila had been on medication for schizoaffective disorder and that the language in the letters were consistent with her diagnosis and for someone with a ‘sense of paranoia.’
Furthermore, the documentary also discussed evidence surrounding the alleged discovery of a firearm silencer in the farmhouse by Bamber’s cousins, Ann Eaton and David Boutflour. The silencer had been crucial in the original investigation because forensic testing had found blood inside its baffles which matched Sheila’s blood type. This finding was pivotal to the original investigation because, if true, it meant that the theory of Sheila committing suicide was no longer plausible because the gun would have been ‘too long for her to reach the trigger’ as reported in The Telegraph. However, at Bamber’s appeal in 2002, evidence was presented that subsequent DNA testing had found blood within the silencer did not belong to Sheila. Despite this, the Court of Appeal rejected the appeal and upheld Bamber’s conviction.
The documentary featured interviews with individuals who have spent years working to prove Bamber’s innocence. Philip Walker, director of the Jeremy Bamber Innocence Campaign said: ‘The documentary highlighting the evidence will help. There is no doubt that public pressure is one of the main reasons that miscarriages of justice get overturned.’
Dr. Dennis Eady, who is a long-standing campaigner and supporter of Mr Bamber told The Justice Gap that, ‘The CCRC should refer this case for appeal without delay. The CPS should make it clear that they will not oppose the appeal because plainly there is no credible evidence left to support this case.’
