Here is a statement from Emma Morris.
We need £20,000 to make a legal challenge to the CCRC’s decision not to refer Jeremy Bamber’s case to the Court of Appeal.
My name is Emma Morris, and I am part of a team of volunteers working towards freedom for Jeremy Bamber. Jeremy Bamber Innocence Campaign is an organization established to investigate and challenge his 39-year conviction.
We are raising funds to challenge the Criminal Cases Review Commission's (CCRC) refusal to investigate new evidence from Jeremy Bamber. In a recorded interview, a police officer has provided an alibi for Jeremy at the time of the five murders for which he was convicted.
Why this case matters: this case raises significant questions about criminal justice procedures:
1. A police officer has provided recorded evidence of an alibi
2. Statements have been fabricated in that officer's name to dismiss the alibi evidence
3. The body responsible for investigating miscarriages of justice has refused to investigate this evidence
The Alibi Evidence
In 2024, investigative journalist Heidi Blake published findings in The New Yorker magazine that identified a significant evidential problem with this conviction. Police officer, Nicholas Milbank, was responsible for taking 999 calls on the night of the murders. In recorded interviews with Blake, Milbank stated: "From what I can remember, someone phoned 999 from inside the farmhouse."
This call was made at 6:09 AM. At that time, Jeremy Bamber was standing outside the property with multiple police officers, who can verify his location.
Milbank described hearing what may have been muffled speech - "a voice or a radio" - and sounds consistent with "a door opening and closing, or a chair being moved." If someone was alive, and moving, inside the locked farmhouse, while Jeremy Bamber was outside with police witnesses, he could not have committed these murders. This evidence was never disclosed at trial or investigated by police.
The Problem of Fabricated Statements
In 2002, the Metropolitan Police conducted a review of the case. During this review, a statement was produced in Nicholas Milbank's name claiming he heard nothing unusual on the telephone line, which Essex police said was just an open line he was monitoring, thereby ruling out a 999 call.
This statement was not signed by Milbank. When Heidi Blake contacted Milbank in 2024, he stated: "No one's spoken to me about it since the nineteen-eighties. Other than you."
Milbank confirmed he never gave this statement to the Metropolitan Police, and described multiple flaws in the statement that, he said, showed it was not written by him.
Nicholas Milbank has since died.
Upon release of the New Yorker article, we immediately contacted the CCRC to outline the new evidence. In response, Essex police provided a statement to the CCRC, purportedly from Nicholas Milbank, claiming he did not know Heidi Blake and had never given any interviews.
However, the interviews were recorded and are now publicly available in The New Yorker's "In the Dark" podcast series. This audio clearly proves that the contents of “Milbank’s” new statement are blatantly untrue.
These funds will pay:
- Mark Newby, Jordans Solicitors (instructing solicitor who successfully overturned Victor Nealon's 17-year wrongful conviction)
- David Emmanuel KC (leading counsel) supported by Junior Counsel.
This £20,000, forms part of total legal costs of £47,500.
We have raised some funds through supporters but require public assistance to meet this cost.
