Not much attention has been paid to the dogs at White House Farm, but I think they could provide some clues.
I've seen these dogs mentioned a few times.
In the appeal document it says this:
A check made by a British Telecom operator of the telephone line to the farm was made at 4.30 a.m. The receiver was off the hook and all the operator could hear was the sound of a dog barking.
If the operator who checked the line could hear a dog barking, where was this dog? Surely it must have been in the house if she could hear it over the phone. Was it shut in another room? There is no mention of a dog by the officers who went into the house.
In the police log entry at 4.09 it says there are two dogs "going berserk". It also says that Jeremy claimed the dogs are normally quiet. It's not clear where these dogs were going berserk - inside or outside the house, although the wording does imply that the dogs were in the house.
Anyway, the point is that there were dogs at the farm, and dogs are likely to bark if they hear anything unusual. Jeremy would surely have known that, so this alleged plan of his to sneak into the house quietly seems a bit daft. If the dogs had heard him they would have barked and therefore alerted the household.
Any thoughts?