"Evil beyond belief", or possibly telling the truth?

[The Hen]

Crucial missing evidence from 25 years ago may prove the innocence of Jeremy Bamber in the 1985 slaughtering of the Bamber family.

Jeremy Bamber: Missing police phone log could clear Bambi killer - Exclusive



Farmhouse killer Jeremy Bamber could be cleared after the discovery of dramatic new evidence.

Lawyers are examining a “lost” police phone log which they claim proves he was innocent of shooting dead five relatives.

The document backs his story that the 1985 Essex massacre was carried out by his “crazed” sister Sheila, known as Bambi.

Now Bamber, 50, is set to launch a fresh appeal against his life sentence.

One of the logs, previously unseen, suggests Bamber’s father Nevill called police on the night of the massacre at White House Farm in Essex.

The note written on August 7, 1985, is titled “daughter gone berserk” and timed at 3.26am – 10 minutes BEFORE a second note records Bamber’s own distress call.

It states: “Mr Bamber, White House Farm, Tolleshunt d’Arcy – daughter Sheila Bamber, aged 26 years, has got hold of one of my guns.” The message adds that “Mr Bamber has a collection of shotguns and .410s” and includes the correct phone number for White House Farm – 860209.

It also records that patrol car CA7 was despatched to the scene at 3.35am, one minute before Bamber rang from his cottage in nearby Goldhanger village.

The message is strikingly similar to the scenario Bamber has consistently claimed his 61-year-old father described to him.

Bamber rang Chelmsford police station at 3.36am, according to a second log also obtained by the Mirror. He told an officer: “You’ve got to help me. My father’s just phoned me, he said, ‘Please come over, your sister has gone crazy and has got the gun’.” The log has small but significant differences to the other note, indicating it relates to a different call.

It refers to Sheila as a “sister” who had gone “crazy” with a gun. And it records that another car, CA5, was separately sent to the farmhouse – again indicating the logs refer to different calls.
Bambi Caffell with twins

The documents are among 100,000 pieces of paper Bamber has sifted through in his prison cell at Full Sutton with the help of his lawyers and supporters.

Prosecutors told Bamber’s trial he invented the call from his father to lay the blame on his schizophrenic sister Sheila, a former model known as Bambi. The judge told jurors – never shown the earlier log – that the existence or not of 61-year-old Nevill’s call was crucial in determining the former public schoolboy’s guilt.

They found Bamber guilty of murdering Nevill, mum June, Sheila, and her twin six-year-old sons Nicholas and Daniel to claim a £436,000 inheritance.

He is currently serving a whole life tariff after being branded “evil almost
beyond belief”.

The new evidence is being examined by the Criminal Cases Review Commission which will announce within weeks if Bamber, now 50, is to have a third appeal. Senior figures at the CCRC are understood to harbour long-term doubts about the safety of his conviction which they have referred to appeal judges once before.

Bamber has spent most of his life in jail for one of the most shocking crimes in British history.

Police who responded to his call, overtaking him en route to the farmhouse, discovered a bloodbath.

Magistrate Nevill was in the kitchen, slumped forward in a chair, his head in the coal scuttle. He had been shot eight times with a .22 semi-automatic rifle.

His wife June, also 61, lay on her bed in a blood-soaked nightie with five bullets in her body and two in her head. Sheila, up from London for the weekend, was on the floor with an open Bible nearby. She had been shot twice in the neck. Her sons Nicholas and Daniel were shot three and five times in the backs of their heads.

At first, detectives believed Bamber’s version of events and agreed Sheila had slaughtered her family before turning the gun on herself.

Doctors always agreed the first shot to her throat was not fatal and at Bamber’s 2002 appeal Lord Justice Kay noted: “A person having suffered such an injury may have been able to stand up and walk around a little.” Bamber was famously pictured holding hands with girlfriend Julie Mugford behind his parents’ coffins, struggling to contain his grief.

Then Julie, 21, discovered he had cheated on her and told police he had discussed hiring a hitman to kill his parents. Detectives were reluctant to change their minds but then a silencer stained with blood and paint was found by Bamber’s cousins.

Forensic tests matched paint on the silencer to scratches on the underside of the farmhouse kitchen shelf.

That suggested the silencer was on the rifle during the struggle with Nevill. With the silencer fitted the gun would have been too long for Sheila to shoot herself in the throat. Nobody believed she had killed in a frenzy, then calmly removed the silencer, put it away downstairs and gone back up to take her own life.

Police realised that if Sheila wasn’t responsible then Bamber must have invented the call from his adoptive father.

The conclusion was obvious – the grieving son was actually a scheming murderer who had nearly succeeded in framing one his victims.

Bamber was charged and in October 1986 convicted by a 10-2 majority verdict at Chelmsford crown court.

Now he hopes the new evidence will ultimately prove his innocence.

Essex police said it would be “inappropriate” to comment at present.

A CCRC spokesman said: “We’re still reviewing the evidence. No decision has been made whether to refer the case.”

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-storie ... z0vioEZ3VC
Go Camping for 95p! Vouchers collectable in the Daily and Sunday Mirror until 11th August . Click here for more information

Wow. Gotta say that I am stunned that this evidence had remained lost for so long. Should this confirm Bamber's versions when released, I wonder what compensation will be due to him?

25 years served wrongfully, and probably never allowed to grieve properly for the loss of his family.

[SisterMaryFellatio]

Shit...I remember that happening poor bugger if he is innocent....I remember the press villifying him.

[Gob]

Remember the case well, trial by media at its finest.

[rubato]

If it was in Texas he'd have been executed 20 years ago.

yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

The note written on August 7, 1985, is titled “daughter gone berserk” and timed at 3.26am – 10 minutes BEFORE a second note records Bamber’s own distress call.

It states: “Mr Bamber, White House Farm, Tolleshunt d’Arcy – daughter Sheila Bamber, aged 26 years, has got hold of one of my guns.” The message adds that “Mr Bamber has a collection of shotguns and .410s” and includes the correct phone number for White House Farm – 860209.

Since this is just a written log and not a recording....

Why isn't it at least as likely that Bamber placed the call himself, pretending to be his father, in order to further his framing scheme?

In any event, it certainly doesn't "prove" his innocence...

And this:

a silencer stained with blood and paint was found by Bamber’s cousins.....

With the silencer fitted the gun would have been too long for Sheila to shoot herself in the throat.

The article doesn't say if the blood was determined to be Bambi's....

In '85 the technology didn't exist to determine this, but it does now....

If it turns out the blood is hers, and it was physically impossible for her to commit suicide in the way she would have had to with the silencer attached, then it looks to me like the cops got it right.

[The Hen]

True Jim, it is just a hand written record. Thank god these days we have far better systems in place than in 1985.

Somehow I get a niggling feeling that if Bamber was guilty, he wouldn't have still been trying to locate any evidence to prove innocence.

I now just don't know what to beleive.

[Lord Jim]

Somehow I get a niggling feeling that if Bamber was guilty, he wouldn't have still been trying to locate any evidence to prove innocence.

Well, one possibility could be that if he had made the call pretending to be his father, he might think that call record could be somewhere in those documents, so he might as well look for it...

It's not like he had a whole lot of other things to do....

The other thing is that at least here in the US, it's not uncommon for guilty killers with either life in prison or the DP to even work to get DNA tests done, on the off chance that something might get screwed up and they can be exonerated. (After all, what do they have to lose? Might as well take a shot...) more than half the convicts that get DNA tests done through The Innocence Project are confirmed to have been guilty.

In this case, I hope that the blood evidence on the silencer has been sufficiently well preserved for DNA testing.

[Scooter]

For the judge to have said that the case hinged on whether there actually was an earlier emergency call made, says that it could be determined that Bember didn't make both calls himself; otherwise, how could it be dispositive of anything? Was the originating number for emergency calls diplayed for the operator back then? I seem to recall that it would have been in North America for 911 calls; I remember it being touted as a safeguard in the event of accidental disconnections. If so, the fact that the calls originated from different places within 10 minutes of each other would pretty much preclude Bember having made both of them

ETA - Didn't they at least type the blood on the silencer to see whose it could have been among the victims (if any)? Presumably at least some of them could have been eliminated as the source, unless all five had the same type, which seems unlikely.

[Lord Jim]

Well Scooter, I got the impression that this:

Prosecutors told Bamber’s trial he invented the call from his father to lay the blame on his schizophrenic sister Sheila, a former model known as Bambi. The judge told jurors – never shown the earlier log – that the existence or not of 61-year-old Nevill’s call was crucial in determining the former public schoolboy’s guilt.

Referred to the call Bamber claimed he got from his father, (which apparently wasn't recorded by the phone system at the time, if it took place) not a call from Bamber's father to the police. (Which was never entered into evidence and the judge wouldn't even have been aware of) So he was basically telling the jury that what was "crucial" in determining Bamber's guilt was whether or not they believed him when he said he had gotten that call from his father...

The critical question for me here, (aside form the DNA of the blood on the silencer) is this:

The call supposedly comes from the father at 3:26 AM...

Bamber makes his call at 3:36 AM....

The article says this:

Bamber rang from his cottage in nearby Goldhanger village.

Okay, just how "nearby" is "nearby"? (It would have been nice if whoever wrote the article had included that little detail...)

Exactly how far is the cottage from the family house, where the murders took place? Is it a 10 minute drive or less? If it's longer, (and assuming the phone system of the time recorded the location of where the calls came from) then it would have been physically impossible for Bamber to have made both calls....

He either wasn't involved, or he would've had to have had an accomplice...

[Gob]

Jim;

Tolleshunt D’Arcy to Mundon Road (Goldhager Village)
Total Distance: 14.03 mile(s), 22.58 km(s)
Estimated journey time of: 25 minute(s)

[Scooter]

So did the 999 system at the time automatically display the originating phone number, or would it have to be provided by the caller? If the former, Bember is innocent. If the latter, the call proves nothing.

[Lord Jim]

If the former, Bember is innocent.

Or he had to have an accomplice...

Here's how this could really get interesting...

Suppose the phone system automatically recorded the number the call came from, meaning Bamber couldn't physically have made both calls....

And...

The blood on the silencer turns out to be his sister's, meaning she couldn't physically have committed suicide....

[Scooter]

If there was an accomplice, and no evidence of one turned up at the time, it sure isn't going to show up now.

And if it is the sister's blood on the silencer, who is to say when it got there? If she and her father struggled for the gun (explaining the paint), she could have been injured and then holed herself up with the gun in whatever room the silencer was found (giving the father enough time to call both the police and his son), taken off the silencer (getting her blood on it) and laid it aside with the intention of killing herself, and then switching gears in the midst of her schizophrenic frenzy and turning on the rest of the family before killing herself.

[BoSoxGal]

http://www.jeremybamber.com/index.php?q ... _.innocent

Convicted by a majority of 10-2. Serving life in prison.

This is why I'm glad we at least have a system in the US where verdicts must be unanimous in criminal cases.

If two reasonable jurors thought the man wasn't proved guilty by the evidence, the Crown should have had to put on a stronger case, or give it up.

I've linked to his own website; there are many other sources for the interested.

Thanks for posting this, Hen. I collect stories of the wrongfully convicted, as they give me motivation to keep doing what I'm doing. It will be interesting to see if this fellow is exonerated/released and what recompense he might get for the better part of a lifetime behind bars.

[The Hen]

You're welcome bsg.

I am just a voracious reader of true crime issues. For many a year I have believed this man to be "evil beyond belief" (which is what he was branded by the media). Over here we have recently had a case which would match the story Bamber gave about his sister, except this one involved a knife a family and a schizophrenic sibling.

[Andrew D]

... a call from Bamber's father to the police. (Which was never entered into evidence and the judge wouldn't even have been aware of)

That does not follow. On the contrary, judges are usually aware of a great deal of evidence which is "never entered into evidence," because the judge deems that evidence inadmissible. Because the judge deems it inadmissible, it is never "entered" into evidence. But in order for the judge to deem it inadmissible, the judge must (except in extremely unusual circumstances, none of which appears to be present here) have examined it.

[Lord Jim]

there are many other sources for the interested.

Do any of them say whether the phone numbers of the two calls were auto-recorded by the phone system?

That does not follow. On the contrary, judges are usually aware of a great deal of evidence which is "never entered into evidence," because the judge deems that evidence inadmissible. Because the judge deems it inadmissible, it is never "entered" into evidence. But in order for the judge to deem it inadmissible, the judge must (except in extremely unusual circumstances, none of which appears to be present here) have examined it.

It certainly follows in this case, since there's no conceivable legitimate reason why a judge would exclude the record of a phone call from one of the victims implicating someone other than the accused minutes before the murder took place....

[Andrew D]

there are many other sources for the interested.

Do any of them say whether the phone numbers of the two calls were auto-recorded by the phone system?

That does not follow. On the contrary, judges are usually aware of a great deal of evidence which is "never entered into evidence," because the judge deems that evidence inadmissible. Because the judge deems it inadmissible, it is never "entered" into evidence. But in order for the judge to deem it inadmissible, the judge must (except in extremely unusual circumstances, none of which appears to be present here) have examined it.

It certainly follows in this case, since there's no conceivable legitimate reason why a judge would exclude the record of a phone call from one of the victims implicating someone other than the accused minutes before the murder took place....

Actually, there might be numerous reasons for a judge's doing exactly that. The record is probably hearsay -- it is not the phone call itself; it is what someone says (said) that the caller said. The judge might have decided that the log did not meet the requirements of an exception to the hearsay rule (business records, the presumption that governmental officials have done what the law requires them to do, etc.). The chain of custody might not have been sufficiently established. The custodian of records might not have been sufficiently ascertained. The authority of the declarant to authenticate the document or vouch for the circumstances rendering an exception to the hearsay rule or the chain of custody might not have been sufficiently established. Etc., etc., etc.

Perhaps more importantly, the trial judge might simply have been wrong. Perhaps the trial judge's application of the hearsay rule and its numerous exceptions screwed up that rule and its exceptions.

All kinds of things could have gone wrong. (And any such errors might not have been the trial judge's fault. It could be that the proponents of the admissibility of the evidence failed to adduce all of the subsidiary evidence which they should have adduced. Or missed an exception that was applicable. Or whatever.)

But whatever may have gone wrong, and regardless of whose fault that might have been, the fact remains that those whose responsibility it was to determine the guilt or innocence of the defendant were not privy to the evidence in question -- the record of the phone call. So what should we do under such circumstances?

It seems to me that at a minimum, a new trial is in order. Any defendant is, in my opinion, entitled to put before the jury any and all evidence which might, by itself or in combination with other evidence, undermine a determination that the prosecution has proved the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

What is the problem with according such relief to the defendant here?