Anthony Pargeter and his rifle and sound moderator
Anthony Pargeter is Jeremy’s cousin on his father’s side. He married Regine Hausser, daughter of famous photographer Robert Hausser. Anthony had a sister, Jacqueline, who married Richard Wood.
Anthony and Jacqueline also had half brothers, as their mother, Audrey, had died and Reginald married again having two other sons called Clive and Roland. It is in Roland’s statement where rumours of a plane flying over to drop drugs at the farm in the middle of the night must have started. He confesses his own involvement in drugs and details a convoluted account of visiting a psychic and her telling him a tale of three hit men who killed the family. [1]
Anthony Pargeter had been shooting with Jeremy and was a frequent visitor to the farm from his home at the time in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire. He told the police that Jeremy became interested in guns in 1980 and then details that he himself had a .410 shotgun. He then graduated to a 12 bore shotgun, and gave his .410 to Jeremy which Jeremy never used. [2]This gun was kept at the farm and had to be licensed to Nevill Bamber as Jeremy Bamber did not own a gun, only an air rifle. In his 8th of August Statement he describes Jeremy as “a likeable young man” and that Nevill Bamber had told him that he had spoken of the acquisitions of farmland to give Jeremy an opportunity to try farming on his own if he ever wished to do so. Nevill had told Anthony that he would be around for a few years yet to guide Jeremy. [3] This is contrary to media reports that Nevill Bamber had a strange premonition that he was going to die.
In his later statement of September Anthony’s feelings about Jeremy appear to have shifted and he becomes suspicious of Jeremy’s interest in guns. He also details a conversation with David Boutflour about their discussion on the red paint found the moderator which matched the paint on the Aga surround. He says he went to the farm and noticed the scoring in the paint work and believed this is where the moderator had come into contact with the mantle. [4]
Where were Anthony Pargeter’s rifle and moderator on the night of the tragedy?
Anthony Pargeter made many statements to the police about the tragedy. In his statement of 8thAugust and the 10th of September he makes no mention of his rifle being at the farm. He discusses the rifle owned by Nevill and its whereabouts, but he does not clarify he came across it whilst looking for his own gun until statements made later.
So on the 17th of September he goes on to detail that he kept two 12 bore shotguns and an air rifle at the farm house but after the tragedy picked them up from David Boutflour and took them back to his home in Bourne End.
Then on t he 17th of November he told police that he only used “.22 rifles in Africa but in England I only had an air rifle”. He is not explicit about where this rifle was kept.
Anthony becomes more explicit in his later 12th of December statement by saying that that he didown a BRNO .22 bolt action rifle and says that it was at White House Farm the weekend before the tragedies. He does not state that he took the rifle away from the farm when he left and as he did not attend the farm again until after the incident we can assume that the rifle was at the White House Farm during the tragedies. He also makes no mention that he owned a sound moderator, or that the rifle had one to use with it at the farm.
At trial he then details verbally again that the rifle was at the farm the weekend before the tragedies, and he also told the court that he left his rifle at the farm, and I quote “I take the bolt with me. I leave the rifle at White House”. [5] Anthony makes no mention of his sound moderator at this point.
In 1991 after complaints by Jeremy Bamber, the City of London Police seized Pargeter’s rifle and moderator. There are three points at issue here:
Annthony Pargeter’s gun was licensed in 1980 for three years, and renewed in 1983. It was to be used at White House Farm, but the license stipulated that it was to be kept at his home in Bourne End, Bucks. He was also issued with a sound moderator for use with the rifle at White House Farm. [6]
So, we have established that Anthony did keep his rifle at the farm which was in breach of his license. Secondly that he owned a sound moderator which was also under the same license terms as the rifle.
Anthony Pargeter sued the Sport Newspaper in 1991 after they had misled readers by suggesting that his rifle had been at White House Farm and possibly used during the tragedies. The Sport lost the libel case and Pargeter was awarded compensation of £40,000 plus costs of £60,000. [7]
The third point that I would like to make is about the moderator is that In 1991 when the police seized the moderator and rifle from Anthony for testing, they detail that it’s the same type and make as the one allegedly used during the tragedies. [8] I quote “Sound Moderator the same make and type as DRB/1” The witness reference exhibit number for the moderator supposedly used the kill the family was DRB/1 (It was given this reference because it was David Robert Boutflour who found the exhibit).
It has been repeatedly denied by police that there were two identical moderators. Jeremy Bamber maintains that there were two sound moderators at the farm with DS Stan Jones (initials SBJ) probably finding Anthony’s moderator at the scene on the 7th of August. It can be shown that DS Davidson fingerprinted a sound moderator on the 9th of August 1985,[9] which is impossible if David Boutflour did not find the sound moderator in the gun cupboard until the 10th of August 1985.
It is likely then, that these were switched over as the case progressed, there are many evidential papers and photographs to support this argument including the moderator label’s having the wrong case reference number on it and further tampering of the exhibit witness reference number which evolved from being SBJ/1 to DB/1 to DRB/1 with no supporting explanatory paperwork. There are two forensic scientists, Brian Elliott and Glynnis Howard who both made detailed statements to the City of London police stating that the reference numbers for the sound moderators in their original statements had been altered without their knowledge. [10] Considering how important the moderator was to the conviction of Jeremy Bamber it has had a surprisingly colourful life, evolving from nothing, to have many different names and guises.
The final report from the City of London Police which was officially disclosed pre 2002 has a paragraph missing which addresses whether or not Anthony’s gun was at the farm. One disclosed later in 2004 was obtaned by the Defence has a missing passage in it. Curiously, someone did not want the Defence to know all there is to know about the rifle, it would then follow by analogy that Anthony’s rifle was present at the farm then the moderator would have been too.Is it suitable that a report of a police review should have whole paragraphs missing from it, and in some cases a number of whole pages are absent? In contrary to the report prepared and given to the Home Secretary and PCA, Anthony Pargeter did not state that he removed his rifle or moderator from White House Farm at any time.
I now return to Anthony Pargeter who met up with Metropolitan police officers in 2002 near his residence in Ibiza. He went to a restaurant for lunch with two of the officers investigating the case during which he said that “If it hadn’t [sic] been for Taff Jones directions we probably wouldn’t be here today.” The reader can draw their own conclusions about what is meant by this statement. [11]
Anthony Pargeter was another key prosecution witness who gave evidence at trial. He and his sister the late Jacqueline Wood also benefitted financially from the Bamber estate upon the conviction of Jeremy Bamber but only after a legal battle with the relatives.
