Statement of Ann Eaton 8th - 13th September 1985

[Caroline R]

I'm not entirely convinced that the feather belonged to one of the children and I'm not convinced that June would put such a thing on the kitchen table.   Until I find out what is on the end of that feather I will keep an open mind about it.  I thought Bridget might be right about the feather being stuck through a marshmallow , because I thought there was a bag of marshmallows on the kitchen side. Anyway, it turns out to be chopped nuts.

If its a feather from a piece of jewelry then I would be interested to find out who it belonged. At the end of the day, its pictured in a crime scene and, RB made reference to Jeremy being seen with a man who had got a feather behind his ear...this could of course could mean that the feather was in fact an earring and it was not behind his ear at all and that who had seen this had misunderstood that it could have been a earring.....

Of course the police never questioned the feather, maybe they thought it irrelevant and maybe it is.....but, on the other hand it might be very significant in the fact that it could have come from an earring  that someone was wearing and could have easily come off during murders inside the kitchen.  The feather has various possibilities, but we will never know the true significance will we....

Perhaps it took the 5th? 

[Patti]

They were all dead by the time of Jeremy's second telephone call to Julie. The timing of that telephone call is irrelevant unless he was stupid enough to telephone Julie at Goldhanger before he purportedly knew that there was "something wrong at the Farm". All Jeremy needed to do was to make a telephone call from the kitchen at the Farm to his answerphone at Goldhanger,cycle back(which took DI Wilkinson 6 minutes) and replace the tape with a new one.

This has been discussed so many times..

Hi Steve

It wasn't irrelevant in 1986 the calls were a bone of contention projected by Stan the man.....to the point that he went over to Julies flat on several occasions to look at one of her friends clocks and came up with the fact that one of them was 10 minutes fast and then only 7 minutes fast the 2nd time....One had never considered that twice before the clocks had been put back in the winter of 1985 and then forward in the spring of 1986.  This evidence was very relevant in court, to the point it established that Jeremy had lied....But, no one disputed the fact that the clock had already been tampered with. 

[lookout]

They were all dead by the time of Jeremy's second telephone call to Julie. The timing of that telephone call is irrelevant unless he was stupid enough to telephone Julie at Goldhanger before he purportedly knew that there was "something wrong at the Farm". All Jeremy needed to do was to make a telephone call from the kitchen at the Farm to his answerphone at Goldhanger,cycle back(which took DI Wilkinson 6 minutes) and replace the tape with a new one.

This has been discussed so many times..

Mr Arlidge,QC,,invented the bicycle theory,,like he must have invented a few things in his personal life too.! That bit of made-up fantasy was fed to the court/jury who then all went on to believe every other word that was said in that courtroom by him,,,and unfortunately not challenged,except by two of the jury,don't forget,,so Jeremy only " lost out " by a whisker.

[Bridget]

Hi Steve

It wasn't irrelevant in 1986 the calls were a bone of contention projected by Stan the man.....to the point that he went over to Julies flat on several occasions to look at one of her friends clocks and came up with the fact that one of them was 10 minutes fast and then only 7 minutes fast the 2nd time....One had never considered that twice before the clocks had been put back in the winter of 1985 and then forward in the spring of 1986.  This evidence was very relevant in court, to the point it established that Jeremy had lied....But, no one disputed the fact that the clock had already been tampered with. 

On what date did Stan check the clock?

[Patti]

On what date did Stan check the clock?

Not sure, but I know I have read on here somewhere.....might have been 1986 me thinks. 

[Bridget]

Not sure, but I know I have read on here somewhere.....might have been 1986 me thinks. 

25th of November 1985, so you're right, that was after the clocks had changed once. And since it was reading the correct hour (but not minutes) we can assume she had changed it. He checked again in September 1986 by which time it had been changed twice.

[Patti]

25th of November 1985, so you're right, that was after the clocks had changed once. And since it was reading the correct hour (but not minutes) we can assume she had changed it. He checked again in September 1986 by which time it had been changed twice.

Thank you for that Bridget, your head must be feeling a bit better than mine today. 

Any idea what type of clock it was? Nonetheless, this evidence was collected to long after the date of crime and in my opinion might not be correct. 

[Steve_uk]

Hi Steve

It wasn't irrelevant in 1986 the calls were a bone of contention projected by Stan the man.....to the point that he went over to Julies flat on several occasions to look at one of her friends clocks and came up with the fact that one of them was 10 minutes fast and then only 7 minutes fast the 2nd time....One had never considered that twice before the clocks had been put back in the winter of 1985 and then forward in the spring of 1986.  This evidence was very relevant in court, to the point it established that Jeremy had lied....But, no one disputed the fact that the clock had already been tampered with. 

The timing of the second telephone call to Julie was irrelevant insofar as one would expect even Jeremy to make sure he did not drop a clue that his family were dead before he himself knew through the purported call from his father that "there's something wrong at the Farm". As it was Julie went back to bed knowing full well for those few ghastly intervening hours that all occupants of the Farm were dead,though she was not at this stage cognizant of whether Jeremy himself or a proxy was the culprit. One of the questions Jeremy lamely answered during interrogation was why did he telephone Julie at all in the middle of the night,when he seldom took Julie's advice on any other matter. The only explanation I can see which fits is that he wanted to tie Julie in as an accessory,along with the excuse for having the ladies' bicycle at Goldhanger which no lady had used covering herself in mud,and of course the sleeping pills which he had taken from Julie to attempt to drug his parents on a previous occasion.

Of course when Julie went to the Police Jeremy had only two courses of action open to him:either admit the murders and rope Julie in on the scheme or to bluff his way out of everything and claim innocence. One post I read today was that Jeremy's Defence team made mistakes. Of course the did:they were all public school types with their noses in the air most of the time thinking they could bluster their way out of everything. Unfortunately they were up against another public school type in Mr. Justice Drake who being himself an ex RAF Officer must have felt an affinity with Nevill Bamber and did his utmost to secure a conviction.

[Bridget]

Thank you for that Bridget, your head must be feeling a bit better than mine today. 

Any idea what type of clock it was? Nonetheless, this evidence was collected to long after the date of crime and in my opinion might not be correct. 

It was a white Philips digital clock radio alarm. I agree, it was a pretty naff way to check the truthfulness of Susan Battersby's evidence, but I suppose if she was going to lie about it she could have altered the clock at any time, even before she made her statement. I'm a little surprised that Rivlin didn't make more of the naffness.

[Patti]

It was a white Philips digital clock radio alarm. I agree, it was a pretty naff way to check the truthfulness of Susan Battersby's evidence, but I suppose if she was going to lie about it she could have altered the clock at any time, even before she made her statement. I'm a little surprised that Rivlin didn't make more of the naffness.

More like to have been assisted by the one and only......SJ  :D :D :D :D

[Caroline R]

The timing of the second telephone call to Julie was irrelevant insofar as one would expect even Jeremy to make sure he did not drop a clue that his family were dead before he himself knew through the purported call from his father that "there's something wrong at the Farm". As it was Julie went back to bed knowing full well for those few ghastly intervening hours that all occupants of the Farm were dead,though she was not at this stage cognizant of whether Jeremy himself or a proxy was the culprit. One of the questions Jeremy lamely answered during interrogation was why did he telephone Julie at all in the middle of the night,when he seldom took Julie's advice on any other matter. The only explanation I can see which fits is that he wanted to tie Julie in as an accessory,along with the excuse for having the ladies' bicycle at Goldhanger which no lady had used covering herself in mud,and of course the sleeping pills which he had taken from Julie to attempt to drug his parents on a previous occasion.

Of course when Julie went to the Police Jeremy had only two courses of action open to him:either admit the murders and rope Julie in on the scheme or to bluff his way out of everything and claim innocence. One post I read today was that Jeremy's Defence team made mistakes. Of course the did:they were all public school types with their noses in the air most of the time thinking they could bluster their way out of everything. Unfortunately they were up against another public school type in Mr. Justice Drake who being himself an ex RAF Officer must have felt an affinity with Nevill Bamber and did his utmost to secure a conviction.

Julie got the pills from her doctor herself and brought them to Jeremy's cottage! She has never said that he asked her to get the pills. But it does beggar the question -  if Jeremy had told her of plans to drug and kill his family, why she would be dumb enough to make him aware that she had them??

[Bridget]

More like to have been assisted by the one and only......SJ  :D :D :D :D

In your opinion lol.

I think the extract from the CoA decision is a little misleading on this aspect in that it seems to infer that police checked whether or not the the clock was in fact 10 minutes fast at the time of the murders, however from the line of questioning at trial it seems that they were actually only checking whether or not it was her habit to set the clock 10 minutes fast by spot checking it unannounced on the two dates given.

[Jane]

Julie got the pills from her doctor herself and brought them to Jeremy's cottage! She has never said that he asked her to get the pills. But it does beggar the question -  if Jeremy had told her of plans to drug and kill his family, why she would be dumb enough to make him aware that she had them??

Interesting point, Caroline. If you told me you would stab someone if you had a knife and I gave you a knife, surely I would be colluding with you which would make me almost as culpable.

[Steve_uk]

The pills plan had passed off without incident and Julie must have been praying that the "now or never" remark in the first telephone call would also prove to be a false alarm. But she knew on the occasion of the second telephone call that Jeremy had been deadly serious,and the charade which followed in the next few hours only Julie and Jeremy knew. Of course to bring this back to the subject of this thread the relatives had their suspicions and let's face it,it didn't take a genius to work out Macavity had been and gone.

[Patti]

In your opinion lol.

I think the extract from the CoA decision is a little misleading on this aspect in that it seems to infer that police checked whether or not the the clock was in fact 10 minutes fast at the time of the murders, however from the line of questioning at trial it seems that they were actually only checking whether or not it was her habit to set the clock 10 minutes fast by spot checking it unannounced on the two dates given.

In all fairness though the clock had been put back an hour upon S. Jones checking the clock at the flat of SB's

Plus when Julie gave her first statement regarding the time, she told police it was 3:30 but then had it verified by Sue B it was 3:15.  Then come November after Jones made his visit it became 3:00

If SB stated the time was 3:15 why did Stan J. go to the flat to prove her wrong? What was his purpose of that? Was he persuasive to a point where she suddenly recalled that she set her clock 10 minutes fast.....The truth of the matter is, is that she said it was 3:15 at the onset....now did she remove 10 minutes from that time already which means that the call was 3:25 lolol