Bamber in new bid to overturn convictions

JEREMY Bamber is bringing a High Court bid for evidence to be released which he claims could lead to his convictions for the murders of five family members more than 30 years ago being overturned.

The 59-year-old is serving life behind bars after being found guilty of murdering his adoptive parents Nevill and June, both 61, his sister Sheila Caffell, 26, and her six-year-old twins Daniel and Nicholas at White House Farm, Essex, in August 1985.

He has always protested his innocence and claims Ms Caffell, who suffered from schizophrenia, shot her family before turning the gun on herself.

Bamber’s lawyers claim the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has not disclosed material about a second silencer which is said to have been found at White House Farm, which they argue is relevant to his latest attempt to overturn his conviction.

Joe Stone QC, representing Bamber, told a remote High Court hearing on Friday that “it now seems almost certain that there is a second sound moderator” - evidence he suggested could “significantly undermine the prosecution case”.

He told Mr Justice Julian Knowles the second silencer “could be the most important exhibit in the case we simply do not know its true relevance”.

Mr Stone said: “The prosecution case at trial was based exclusively on the point that there was only ever one sound moderator and that the specific factual circumstances in which this sound moderator was found and the nature of the blood grouping on it meant that Sheila Caffell could not have committed the murders and then taken her life.”

The court heard the prosecution case at Bamber’s trial in 1986 was that Ms Caffell could not have reached the trigger to kill herself if the silencer was attached to the murder weapon.

Mr Stone argued his client would be “significantly handicapped” in mounting a fresh bid to overturn his conviction through the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the independent body which investigates possible miscarriages of justice, without the evidence sought.

He added that “blood-based exhibits from Sheila Caffell’s DNA were destroyed by Essex Police in February 1996”, as part of what he described as “systematic destruction of core exhibits”.

Mr Stone also referred to a recent ITV drama about the killings, White House Farm, and claimed that material was provided to the author of a book on which the show was based by the original investigating officer “without permission or lawful authority”.

Mr Justice Julian Knowles reserved his judgment on Bamber’s application and said he hopes to give a written ruling next week.

Mirrorpix > Jeremy Bamber being lead into Chelmsford Crown Court at the start of his trial in 1986