An alibi from Neville is better than no alibi at all :

[Nickos]

Hello my lovely Nickos xx You are so lucky I don't have an answering machine or indeed  a phone I am lucky to even have an internet connection but I have you what more could a girl want

Hi McG, Yes, what more could a girl want - a yatch, diamond rings, roses every day, a fast car, a ticket to see One Direction, JB out of jail, but no, throw those all away - why - because I'm worth it 

[Jane]

I have said before it is impossible to answer a downstairs phone within 3-5 rings if you are upstairs 'sleeping like a log'.

WHO SAID HE ANSWERED IT WITHIN THAT TIME?
SLEEPING LIKE A LOG MEANS DIFFERENT THINGS TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE

The phone has to ring several times before it would wake you up in the first place.

I WAKE ABOUT A SECOND BEFORE AN ALARM GOES OFF OR A PHONE RINGS

Anyway Jeremy said he answered the phone & spoke to Neville who said 'please come over, Sheila has gone crazy & she has got the gun'. So there would be no recorded message. A shame as it would have cleared Jeremy.

SO HE ANSWERED THE PHONE AND SPOKE TO NEVILL....................................SO???

Jeremy has to say the answering machine was switched off.

AND PERHAPS IT WAS

[Adam]

Cannot believe we are back here again, Adam.
1)  Jeremy did NOT say the answer machine was off, someone on this forum said 'perhaps' the answer machine was off.

2) Surely Jeremy wouldn't claim he answered the phone unless he believed it was possible for him to do so.  His cottage was tiny so the phone couldn't have been too far away.

Are you out celebrating tonight?

He has to say he answered the phone. He can't say Neville left a message, the police would want to hear it. To be fair Jeremy has never claimed he got a recorded message. Can't say I am surprised.

Either way. To me it is strange. Either Jeremy did the impossible & answered the phone within 3-5 rings. Or the answering machine was switched off.

[susan]

Hello Nickos  on a serious note I have never read where Jeremy said how many rings the phone made this seems to have come from Adam I have never read he said the answering machine was turned off this has come from Adam.  IMO a message from Ralph Bamber is on the answering machine and this is being witheld along with plenty of other evidence that would be GOLD to Jeremy this is of course just my humble opinion. But of course this may now be available to the Defence but we would not get to hear about it just yet.  xxx

[Jan]

He has to say he answered the phone. He can't say Neville left a message, the police would want to hear it. To be fair Jeremy has never claimed he got a recorded message. Can't say I am surprised.

Either way. To me it is strange. Either Jeremy did the impossible & answered the phone within 3-5 rings. Or the answering machine was switched off.

or the machine was set to answer after more than 5 rings? On mine you can set it to how many rings you want and it will not record if it is picked up first - so how do you KNOW how many rings the machine was set at? Answer - you don't know .How long will it take JB to get to phone? Answer you dont KNOW you are just guessing.

[Nickos]

Hello Nickos  on a serious note I have never read where Jeremy said how many rings the phone made this seems to have come from Adam I have never read he said the answering machine was turned off this has come from Adam.  IMO a message from Ralph Bamber is on the answering machine and this is being witheld along with plenty of other evidence that would be GOLD to Jeremy this is of course just my humble opinion. But of course this may now be available to the Defence but we would not get to hear about it just yet.  xxx

Hi Susan (being serious - it is New year Eve).

I think the whole answer machine issue a non starter both for the defence and prosecution. Nothing came up at court on this subject (I believe).

[Jane]

He has to say he answered the phone. He can't say Neville left a message, the police would want to hear it. To be fair Jeremy has never claimed he got a recorded message. Can't say I am surprised.

Either way. To me it is strange. Either Jeremy did the impossible & answered the phone within 3-5 rings. Or the answering machine was switched off.

WHY would it surprise you that he didn't say he received a recorded message if he didn't get one? From where are you getting 3-5 rings.

[Adam]

Hello Nickos  on a serious note I have never read where Jeremy said how many rings the phone made this seems to have come from Adam I have never read he said the answering machine was turned off this has come from Adam.  IMO a message from Ralph Bamber is on the answering machine and this is being witheld along with plenty of other evidence that would be GOLD to Jeremy this is of course just my humble opinion. But of course this may now be available to the Defence but we would not get to hear about it just yet.  xxx

The police are holding onto a saved message from Neville ? That would be gold dust. Hope they have not deleted it.

If it was not switched off, why didn't Neville leave a message ? Oh sorry I forgot, he did.

[Adam]

Relating to the random stranger/burglar threads. This thread also shows his best option was to make up Neville's call. A time for closure

[Adam]

Jeremy leaving the bodies to be found would still be a suspect. Especially with Neville having put up a fight.

Sheila would have been the main suspect. But the relatives would still not believe it & there was only one other person who had a motive to kill those five people. Other people have agreed today no one would believe a random stranger massacre or that the person who found the bodies (Barbara Wilson ?) committed the crime. Although Jeremy if under pressure may suggest the random stranger scenario.

Jeremy may have been interviewed straight away by the police & been a suspect much sooner. Especially if he showed indifference to the deaths. He would have no alibi.



So it makes sense for Jeremy to phone the police & lead them in a direction on the back of Nevilles call. Giving himself an alibi at the same time which cannot be disproven. The police did not know Jeremy and  would surely never believe Jeremy would committ such a horrific crime.

It also makes sense to phone Chelmsford police station, which was seven miles further away from WHF than Witham. Jeremy said he did not phone 999 because it 'did not occur to him' although dialling 999 is quicker than looking for a phone number & will result in a quicker response time.

The longer the delay between his 3.26am phone call & the discovery of the bodies, the more it gets into everyones mind sets that there really is a crazy woman with a gun still alive inside. Jeremy could spend several hours continuing to enlighten everyone about his 'nutter' sister & Nevilles phone call /alibi.

The Raid Team would automatically be called in a seige situation. Delaying things by several more hours. Jeremys Neville phone alibi is becoming more plausible by the minute. He 'should have been an actor'.

Having the police pick Jeremy up would have been even better still. It would have shown him as having just got dressed & rushing into their car. Giving the impression he had been at home all night & woken up by Nevilles call.  It is also another alibi, showing Jeremy did not phone from WHF. However the police refused Jeremys request & told him to make his own way. Jeremy did the next best thing & arrived after the police. Driving very slowly.

So the phone call to the police meant Jeremy could work with & assist the police. Use his charm to become their buddies. Give them his version of events & look upset when the bodies are discovered. By 9am that morning & for the next few weeks, Neville's alibi had worked.

Jeremys supporters say 'why phone the police if you are not innocent'? Another equally good question is 'why not phone the police if guilty ' ?

[Jan]

Hi Susan (being serious - it is New year Eve).

I think the whole answer machine issue a non starter both for the defence and prosecution. Nothing came up at court on this subject (I believe).

true - they took the machine away - if it had been relevant they would have said so ( of course

[lebaleb]

If guilty, why not call 999?

[lookout]

If guilty, why not call 999?

That's a point,lebaleb.

[lookout]

 If it had been Jeremy,one of the three adults could EASILY have dialled 999 anyway and nobody can tell me different. It's surprising how quick you react with certain situations and this would have been no different.
Sheila wasn't dead, upstairs, if Jeremy was downstairs "struggling" with his father ! Children could have been locked in the bathroom.

So many grey areas in this case.It HASN'T been well thought out at all. What a shambles.

[Alias]

If guilty, why not call 999?

That is actually a very good point.

Have said this before, but I think that Jeremy was very confused as to what to do and afraid of doing the wrong thing. Sheila had had episodes before, she seemed to have them during night time and early hours of the morning. Jeremy couldn´t know the seriosness and what Nevill wanted him to do. He said, come over, he didn´t say, call the police. Jeremy must also have thought: why didn´t dad call the police instead of me? That probably made Jeremy think it wasn´t such a grave emergency as it turned out to be.
Who would think that, anyway? You don´t immediately think that your sister will kill anyone, do you?

Jeremy called Julie for advise. I believe he called her before calling the police. He said, everything is going well (with me, but) something is wrong at the farm.

He went for a compromise calling the local cops, afraid of Nevill´s reaction if police cars were sent to the farm with howling sirenes.

It all makes sense to me.