by Emily Parsons
Bamber's new hope for release
CONVICTED mass murderer Jeremy Bamber insists new evidence will prove he did not shoot dead his adoptive parents, his sister and her two young twin sons 20 years ago. In an exclusive interview he told reporter Emily Parsons he hopes to be out of jail by the end of the year.
GRUESOME police photographs lie at the heart of Jeremy Bamber’s latest bid to overturn his murder conviction.
Taken by scenes of crime photographers, they show the bodies of his adoptive parents, Nevil and June Bamber, and his sister Sheila ‘Bambi’ Caffell, at White House Farm, Tolleshunt D’Arcy, on August 7 1985.
Bamber believes they will help him show he was wrongfully convicted of murdering the three adults and Sheila’s six-year-old twin boys Daniel and Thomas.
When the shocking crime was first discovered, police believed Sheila, in a moment of madness, had shot her parents and twins before turning the gun on herself. Bamber had told them she often had mad bouts with his pare nts.
Now Bamber — who has already lost two appeals — says the police photographs support that initial theory.
They show that rigor mortis had set in on all the victims, except Sheila, he says. He is confident the new evidence will lead to a successful third appeal.
He said: “My lawyer has the photos. They are absolutely clear and — it is quite hard for me to say — there is no question you can see mum and dad have been dead quite some time.
“Sheila still looks pink and while the blood on them is dry, Sheila is still bleeding.
“Sheila must also have walked on the blood stains on the carpet as in the photos you can clearly see the stains on her feet, even though they said her hands and feet were clean.”
Bamber is also excited that his lawyers have recently obtained logs completed by a radio and a telephone operator at Essex Police headquarters in Springfield.
They wrote down what they were told by the first officers to arrive at the farmhouse, because it was not until 1997 that conversations were tape-recorded.
He said: “The freshest of fresh evidence we have is probably the other scenes of crime logs and the logs taken and written down at the scene and at head office, which confirm what was not disclosed in the written log.”
These logs show that police officers had seen somebody moving at an upstairs window, while Bamber was outside with them.
Bamber said: “I don’t want to lose focus on the main issues though, such as the non-disclosure of the evidence log. If we’d had the radio log we’d have had an alibi for me.”
He still hasn’t ruled out the possibility that his sister Sheila did the killings.
He said: “The evidence appears to be very strong that she did, but we can’t rule out that there may have been a third party who we don’t know and it’s not for me to suggest who it may have been.”
Clearly optimistic about the possibility of release, he said: “We were very lucky to get this fresh evidence. As soon as I got it I knew, this is absolute dynamite. I thought ‘this is just amazing’.
“It is hard, solid evidence that as soon as it gets before court will absolutely win. It has to win.
“We are currently just waiting for someone to make a decision to get my case into court, waiting for someone to say ‘yes, this evidence is so significant we must get this before court as soon as possible’.
“What we have come up with this time is a whole new angle. I have got an alibi and always have had an alibi — this is clear in this new evidence. It can’t have been me, it wasn’t me and the evidence is there to prove it.”
Bamber, now 44, spoke freely and was in a buoyant mood.
He added: “Up until recently people have had a misconception about what happened. People now say ‘well he’s been in there 20 years, he must have done it’ and it’s not like that.
“I was given a 25 year sentence originally, but that was upped to a whole life term by (then Home Secretary Michael) Howard. Three years ago that was capped to 25 years again, but it’s really up to the parole board when I’m released.
“I hope the new evidence we have will see me released by the end of the year.”
Looking to the future, a visit to his parents’ grave, at the parish church of Tolleshunt D’Arcy, is top of his things to do when finally released.
He said: “I would very much like to do that of course, but it would also be lovely to be with friends.
“The whole point would be to have the choice to do what I would like to do, it would be lovely to do what I choose.”
For now, his fate rests in the hands of those holding his appeal, and despite his earlier certainty, Bamber hesitated as he spoke on the outcome:
“I hope they listen, but I still hold some cynicism. I’m just looking forward to the future. ”
Asked if he really did kill his family, Bamber had only one answer: “No.”