The summing up
153. When Drake J. summed up to the jury, he suggested that there were three "crucial questions". The first, and he made clear that they were not in any order of importance, was whether they believed Julie Mugford? If they were sure that she had told the truth it meant the appellant had planned and carried out the killings. The second was whether they were sure that Sheila Caffell did not kill the members of her family and then commit suicide? The third was whether there was a telephone call in the middle of the night from Nevill Bamber to his son? If there was no such call then it inevitably undermined the whole of the appellant's story and he could have had no reason to have invented it, save to cover up his responsibility for the murders.
The first, and he made clear that they were not in any order of importance, was whether they believed Julie Mugford?
Mugford lied about monies due to her as agreed in a contract with NOTW should Jeremy be convicted of the murders, should stood to benefit by £25,000 and therefore her testimony was motivated by greed. She told a deliberate lie to the jury about this arrangement she had, because she knew if the truth be known the jury would not have entertained anything she said as being reliable...
The second was whether they were sure that Sheila Caffell did not kill the members of her family and then commit suicide?
She had a bloodied handprint on the front part of her nightdress and bloodied fingermarks on her throat, as well as bloodied marks on the top part of her right hand/wrist and her right forearm which is consistent with sheila having been involved in some sort of a struggle with someone before she died, so the trial judge obviously got it wrong by suggesting otherwise...
The third was whether there was a telephone call in the middle of the night from Nevill Bamber to his son? If there was no such call then it inevitably undermined the whole of the appellant's story and he could have had no reason to have invented it, save to cover up his responsibility for the murders.Prosecution failed to prove such a call had not taken place. More crucially, police had evidence which they deliberately withheld that was capable of indicating that Ralph Bamber had called police himself at 3:26am, and that when Ralph had made this call, he himself had not dialled 999...