Midway in Colin Caffels book In Search of the Rainbows End there is clear mention, no one is anywhere without reason that includes this person seen that night.
I believe it is in Colin's book, though I have not seen it myself, only read what has been posted here. However, there is no Police documentation with regards to following this information up...that is what I meant. Sorry.
There is also reference to this in David Shaws 'An Innocent Man'.
(A link to which is contained in the second post of this thread: http://jeremybamberforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,1268.0.html ).
The relevant paragraph is copied below:
Information contained in police logs also reveal that officers were sent along to neighbouring properties, to make enquiries concerning if they had heard or seen anything during the night. It’s believed one neighbour may have made the sighting referred to by the Press as ‘A hunched up dirty looking man’ who was seen walking away from the back of the house, about an hour after the police first arrived at the scene. The unidentified person was described in a major incident register log but we can go no further, because any witness statement that may have existed, containing this type of information, were never disclosed. We do not even know which witness claims they saw this man, since mountains of material is still withheld under PII (Public Interest Immunity) Rules.
It surprises me that any of the neighbours would be able to see the back of the house, given that this was August, and all the trees and hedges etc would be in full leaf, let alone that he was "dirty looking".
It's a little difficult to really pick the bones out of this, this is one of the rarer occasions where Shaw provides a hint of the source of his information, a newspaper article and an entry on a Major Incident register log.
Although Colin mentions it in his book, it's also unclear as to where his information comes from, he wasn't there so perhaps it came from the same newspaper article, or from a conversation with a police officer, or even perhaps a conversation with the neighbour in question.
From my point of view there's a distinct lack of information to speculate too much on this, the only indication of the timing of this incident, is given by Shaw as one hour after the police first arrived. I wonder if it may be worth while looking at who was actually at the scene and what was taking place at that point?
The logs in this thread will help:
http://jeremybamberforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,732.0.html