Nick Milbank confirms that Jeremy Bamber is innocent

[Adam]

Millbank taking a 999 call at 6.09am. From inside WHF.

Then not informing anyone & staying on the line until the police entered WHF at 7.30am. Although no one was speaking to him on the phone.

The police knowing Millbank had taken a call from inside WHF. Telling him 'we are inside now'.

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There is only one reason why Millbank would stay on the open line between 6.09am - 7.30am. He had been instructed to after the line had been cleared.

[snow66!]

Millbank taking a 999 call at 6.09am. From inside WHF.

Then not informing anyone & staying on the line until the police entered WHF at 7.30am. Although no one was speaking to him on the phone.

The police knowing Millbank had taken a call from inside WHF. Telling him 'we are inside now'.

----------

There is only one reason why Millbank would stay on the open line between 6.09am - 7.30am. He had been instructed to after the line had been cleared.

Well, we are just guessing at the moment, Adam, but as you say, it is unlikely that Milbank simply answered a 999 call at 6.09 and continued to monitor it for an hour and a half without being told to do so.

[Adam]

Millbank taking a 999 call from inside WHF is similar to the claim that West took a call from Nevill. Or was it Bonnett who took Nevill's call.

The chairs moving and doors opening Millbank mentions would be the raid team. They did smash down a door and move upturned chairs.

[Adam]

Seems that Sheila dialled 999 although the police were outside. She did not say anything or put the phone down.

The phone was also off the hook before 6.09am. That must have been Nevill.

Everyone inside WHF was leaving the phone off the hook.

[Steve_uk]

Blood relatives Episode 5
999 call at 0609
Heidi Blake (HB) introduced herself to Nick Milbank NM by saying, "Basically, I'm just wondering whether you might be willing to have a chat with me about it and just make sure I'm not completely barking up the wrong tree with the stuff I'm looking at"
NM "Yeah, to be honest, yes, I was, I was on the telephone but it was back in the 80's, my recollection of it. I mean, I'd taken millions and millions of phone calls since then and to be honest, in those days it was just another, just another phone call.
HB - comment Just another phone call, he said.
Nick Milbank (NM)
“From what I remember it was a case of someone ringing 999 and me answering it and then I just was hearing background noises and then police entering the build(sic) or room. I don’t think there was any actual conversation, but I really don’t remember much about it at all to be honest”
Heidi Blake (HB) “Were you in the Control Room and picked up a 999?”
NM “Yes”
“Yeah, yeah, in the central Control Room in Chelmsford”
“I do dispatching most of the time but on that occasion I was call taking and, but, yeah and obviously it came from the 999 system”
HB “So a call came in, and it was from the farmhouse itself?”
NM “Yeah”
NM “If you get a phone call where it’s technically an abandoned call because people either aren’t – it’s technically an abandoned call because people either aren’t speaking or there’s someone who’s in fear or danger or, whatever, our policy is to stay on the phone with them until the police arrive. And then as the police officers would get there, they’d pick up the phone and say, yeah, we’re here now. And so I could then hang up the phone call and go straight to the next 999 call.
HB “Right, OK, yeah, that makes sense”
NM “And so I say I just sat there with the phone open to see if anyone did say anything or I heard anything”.
HB “And you could hear sort of movement in the background?”
NM” As far as I can remember, there was, yes, a movement or voices in the background. I’m, not sure I actually spoke to anybody”

HB. “So Nick Millbank was saying not only did someone dial 999 from inside the Manor that morning before police entered the property, but when he answered, he heard apparent signs of life inside, movements, maybe even speech.

NM “Who actually made the phone call, I don’t know”

HB "This conversation was becoming more and more surreal because Nick Milbank did not seem to realise the gravity of what he was telling me”

HB “I’m just trying to get my head round some of this new stuff and that it does seem like if it’s true that because, you know, that the way it all went down was apparently, you know, Jeremy claims there was a call from his dad to him at 3.00 in the morning saying come round, your sister’s gone berserk with a gun and he went round to the farmhouse and they got there at about 3:48 in the morning and then from that point on, he was stood outside with the police and the police didn’t enter until 7:30 am. So if there was a call from inside the farmhouse, it sort of doesn’t quite make sense that, you know, that would have happened. And because that would indicate that someone was alive and they’re basically, you know, they’re all dead by the time”.
NM “Well, obviously, yeah, yeah”

HB “Well obviously, Nick Milbank said, someone was alive in there”

The police hadn’t entered the property until 7:30 am, so Milbank had been listening in for an hour and 21 minutes before the bodies were found. And he’d heard noises that might have been crucial clues to what was going on in there”.

HB “And so did it sound like, because I think there was meant to be a bit of a struggle in the kitchen. Did it sound like a commotion or did it just sound like, you know,”

NM” Didn’t sound like no, it was just movement, you know, movement really, I don’t know. I can’t remember but I’ll be guessing sort of either a door opening, closing or a chair being moved or, you know, there was some noise or some sort of movement and, then all of a sudden, you know, there were police, sounds of police. I think someone picked up the phone and said it’s OK, we’re in now, well we’re here now, whatever. And I said, oh that’s fine and put the phone down. I’m guessing it was a police officer that picked up the phone. And so obviously there was no longer the need to leave the 999 call open”.

HB “Who could have made this call? Nevill, June and the twins had all been shot in the head at close range. If someone was alive inside the house after the police turned up, it could only have been Sheila, who was found dead inside the locked Manor holding the murder weapon.

He does nothing of the kind.

[Rob_]

Please explain the above. There is a difference between 'off the hook' and 'engaged' status which only happens (a) When a call is ended and the hand set is not replaced. There is a howler noise which can be heard and seen (by a light) by the exchange operator and the noise is also played via the handset to the source. It is a time based trigger (b) The system also notifies the operator when the status changes to engaged.

By the time the TFG entered and Milbank had hung up the call the status would be 'off the hook.

The most common cause of off the hook Bubo is when the phone is picked up but no number is dialled the line will then time out after a few minutes.

I am not sure about when a call is ended by the receiver but the line held open by the caller? If the line times out it would be much longer but not sure how long this would take?

[Bubo bubo]

The most common cause of off the hook Bubo is when the phone is picked up but no number is dialled the line will then time out after a few minutes.

I am not sure about when a call is ended by the receiver but the line held open by the caller? If the line times out it would be much longer but not sure how long this would take?

It does not matter who is the caller and who is the receiver. Which ever side ends the call if the other does not return the handset to the cradle the other party will be without a line for a short period. I do not know how long this was for either an automated exchange or the old Stowager system. Chelmsford was automatic and Tolleshunt D'Arcy was Stowager.

It had to be a relatively short time because the compliant side would be without a functioning phone line and in some cases may have needed to make another maybe emergency call as a result of the initial contact or to make further calls of an urgent nature

[Bill Robertson]

There is only one reason why Millbank would stay on the open line between 6.09am - 7.30am. He had been instructed to after the line had been cleared.

It was standard operating procedure, as he explained in the podcast. It is also inconceivable that the officers at WHF were not informed about the 999 call

[snow66!]

It was standard operating procedure, as he explained in the podcast. It is also inconceivable that the officers at WHF were not informed about the 999 call

So do you think enough evidence can be/has been provided to prove Sheila made a 999 call, Bill?

[ILB]

With Milibank now deceased I doubt anything can be put forward.

[Bill Robertson]

So do you think enough evidence can be/has been provided to prove Sheila made a 999 call, Bill?

I think that the point is that the CCRC should investigate; get hold of the Stokenchurch files and view the report. It will confirm that the 999 call was made. It is the CCRC’s responsibility to investigate, something they seem to want to avoid.

[Hardy Boy]

So do you think enough evidence can be/has been provided to prove Sheila made a 999 call, Bill?

Doesn’t look like it Snow, maybe if the New Yorker show the unedited uncut version like they were asked to do by the CCRC but refused, who knows, but they issued this!


Milbank was promptly contacted by Essex Police and shown what the force said was a handwritten version of the 2002 statement.

Milbank produced a new statement saying he had not known he was talking to a journalist and did not endorse the New Yorker article.

He also now claimed the 2002 statement was real.

The New Yorker issued a statement saying it stood by its reporting – but the CCRC said any concerns arising from what PC Milbank told the magazine had “FALLEN away”.

“The CCRC considers the point must be that if officers were aware there were one or more persons alive inside White House Farm… it defies credulity that they would subsequently treat Mr Bamber as a suspect,” it wrote, adding that contemporaneous (existing, occurring, or originating during the same time) records did not mention any 999 call.

So who knows, it will be challenged and might have to be decided elsewhere?

[snow66!]

Doesn’t look like it Snow, maybe if the New Yorker show the unedited uncut version like they were asked to do by the CCRC but refused, who knows, but they issued this!


Milbank was promptly contacted by Essex Police and shown what the force said was a handwritten version of the 2002 statement.

Milbank produced a new statement saying he had not known he was talking to a journalist and did not endorse the New Yorker article.

He also now claimed the 2002 statement was real.

The New Yorker issued a statement saying it stood by its reporting – but the CCRC said any concerns arising from what PC Milbank told the magazine had “FALLEN away”.

“The CCRC considers the point must be that if officers were aware there were one or more persons alive inside White House Farm… it defies credulity that they would subsequently treat Mr Bamber as a suspect,” it wrote, adding that contemporaneous (existing, occurring, or originating during the same time) records did not mention any 999 call.

So who knows, it will be challenged and might have to be decided elsewhere?

Well as Bill says, maybe the Stokenchurch files can clarify things, HB?
You see others must surely know if a call from inside WHF happened, I mean something definitely occurred at 6.09 worthy of being noted in the logs didn't it?
Now whatever did happen at 6.09 it must have been Milbank who reported it, but who did he report it to?
And did Milbank make a note of the event himself?
It is widely believed that it was simply the operator making a link between the police and WHF, but Milbank doesn't mention this to Heidi Blake. And again, Milbank must have written down something regarding the 6.09 call or at least informed someone else who then relayed it to [ Bonnet? West?] or whoever's log it is that the 6.09 reference can be seen?
And if it was the link up at 6.09, why wasn't Milbank told what it was when he reported it? 'was' Milbank told it was the link up and forgot? I dont know, its as if he wasn't aware of a 'planned' link up at all and simply thought that a call had been made from inside the farm? Was it?
Jean Rowe doesn't seem to mention what time the link was made? Was she questioned in the Stokenchurch inquiry? Surely she could have cleared things up there and then? Burrell, what about him?
Did he pass the info from Milbank on to West or Bonnet?
Who else was in the room with Milbank when the 6.09 call occurred? What did they see or hear?
Oh well, we will just have to wait and see what JB and the CT endeavour to do regarding the Milbank call, HB!

[snow66!]

I think that the point is that the CCRC should investigate; get hold of the Stokenchurch files and view the report. It will confirm that the 999 call was made. It is the CCRC’s responsibility to investigate, something they seem to want to avoid.

OK, thanks, Bill, lets see what action JB and the CT take now to prove that Sheila made the 6.09 call!

[snow66!]

I suppose, when you think about it, the Stokenchurch inquiry should have uncovered what exactly happened at 6.09?
So we have to ask, why doesn't the police and CCRC just produce the evidence that it was the operator making the link up at 6.09? One has to ask, do they actually 'have' any proof?
And if not, why not??
Are they saying that Milbanks Stokenchurch statement is the proof of the link up at 6.09? If so, all they have to do is produce his original 'signed' statement from 2002.
And if the CCRC 'cant' produce a genuine signed copy, does this mean that Milbank was indeed trlling the truth that he gave no statement to Stokenchurch? And if so, did the police cover up a call from inside WHF?
Surely to god there must be undisputed evidence of a 6.09 link up if it happened?? And if not, well, we can only assume that a call was indeed made from inside WHF at 6.09 while JB was outside with the police!
Yes, I am inclined to agree with Bill, the Stokenchurch files 'should' be able to prove things one way or another.