http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/essex_family_of_killer_jeremy_bamber_welcome_court_s_decision_1_1716676Essex: Family of killer Jeremy Bamber welcome court’s decisionRELATIVES of killer Jeremy Bamber have welcomed a decision to throw out his latest legal bid to overturn a conviction for murdering five members of his family in Essex 27 years ago.
Bamber, 51, wanted to appeal a refusal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the independent body which investigates possible miscarriages of justice, to refer his case back to the Court of Appeal to be looked at again.
The hearing followed the rejection by a single judge of Bamber’s application for permission to seek judicial review of the CCRC’s decision.
But yesterday his renewed application was refused by Sir John Thomas, president of the Queen’s Bench Division, and Mr Justice Globe.
Bamber is serving a whole life sentence for murdering five relatives in Tolleshunt D’Arcy in 1985.
He has always maintained his innocence and claims his schizophrenic sister Sheila Caffell shot their wealthy parents, June and Neville, and six-year-old children, Daniel and Nicholas, before turning the gun on herself, in a remote farmhouse.
Yesterday his extended family said they were pleased with the High Court’s decision but spoke of the “horrendous” pain they experience each time Bamber has appealed his conviction.
The CCRC’s decision is now the fourth attempt Bamber has tried and failed to get his conviction overturned.
Karen Boutflower, the wife of Bamber’s cousin David, said: “We are pleased with today’s outcome but every time he tries to appeal it’s awful, horrendous for us. It just never goes away.
“I think he does it because he’s got nothing to lose and nothing else to do or think about. But we have no doubt he’s guilty, you only have to read the forensic report to know that.
“Sense is prevailing, there is no new evidence and nothing has changed.”
Sir John, announcing the decision of the court, said that having looked at the approach taken by the CCRC in the case he could not see “any way” in which a challenge could be made to the decision reached.
In a statement posted on his website, Bamber said: “It appears that the threshold for my case to be referred to the Court of Appeal is much higher than in most cases but that doesn’t make me any less innocent.
“The law, it seems, simply does not apply if it assists me in proving that I am wrongly convicted.”
His latest request for an appeal was based on a fresh analysis of three burn marks found on his father and gunshot wounds on his sister.
Bamber and two other murderers are also appealing their whole life sentences at the European Court of Human Rights against his whole life jail sentence.
On Wednesday lawyers urged judges in Strasbourg to rule that UK law allowing the most dangerous offenders to be kept behind bars until they die breaches their human rights.
Commenting on this appeal Mrs Boutflour said: “Killing five members of your family is inhumane and degrading so I think he is in the right place.”
