A fair trial?

[Jackiepreece]

Why I am convinced of Jeremy Bamber's Innocence by Susannah

During the years I have known Jeremy I have found him to be open and reliable, ordinary in his manner. He is resilient and truthful, I believe he is innocent not just because of the growing evidence but because I have got to know him as a friend. I don’t believe that the man I know has the capability to have carried out such terrible crimes and I have seen too much evidence which supports his account that Sheila shot the family. I wanted to tell you a bit about the man I know and not the monster that has been built up over 25 years.

Despite the sadness that has befallen him Jeremy feels that he was lucky to have been adopted by Nevill and June Bamber. He grew up in a kind and loving family and enjoyed life on the farm. As the son of a farmer he enjoyed the adventure of playing on the farm with his dog which he loved and also learned the skill of farming from an early age. Jeremy loves growing things (not that he can) and even keeps up –to-date with things like ‘country file’ now. He has expressed a desire to return to farming – it is what he knows and loves although I don’t think he would wish to do it on a grand scale. The farm had no cattle it was only arable farming. He has recounted many happy and fun memories of his childhood on the farm with Sheila who was also adopted from different parents.

As a young man he went to Gresham College which I believe is a private college where the wealthy intelligent attend. Jeremy is very intelligent but he didn’t pursue a degree after college. He wanted to get back to real life and work on the farm. The Boutflours have presented Jeremy as young man who was some sort of delinquent middle class play boy. I think it was quite the opposite, although from a privileged back ground, he was a young man who was happy in long term relationships and he was definitely a ‘farmers boy’ who very much enjoyed that life style and wanted it to continue that way. Jeremy always had long term girlfriends and was able to form and maintain stable relationships with women. Jeremy is not bisexual or homosexual. Jeremy had homosexual friends such as Brett Collins, as much as you or I would today – the difference was that in 1985 if you had gay friends you were ‘branded’ as one of them and it was used in a negative way to represent Jeremy. Jeremy was a typical young man in his early twenties who kept up to date with fashion trends, but he never dressed up as Adam Ant as has been presented at times. In reality he was always smart and well presented. He did go into London to meet up with friends and he saw Sheila every couple of weeks he was friends with Colin Caffell and they got on well.

It has also been suggested that all of Jeremy’s supporters are women, again the idea is use to smear Jeremy, but he also has a lot of male campaigners. However, interestingly someone recently pointed out to me that if you look at Schappelle Corby on Face Book (who is currently serving time in a Bali prison but maintains innocence) you will see that the vast majority of her supporters are female. I think that supporters are often women because they are the ‘doers’ of this world and perhaps feel more compassionately for these causes than men do.

For someone who has been wronged so much by our justice system he is always positive and I have never found him to be bitter and twisted as one imagines he might be. I find him very gracious and respectful, sincere, resilient, loyal, reliable and candid. A number of his friends have known him since before he went to prison showing that he is able to maintain lasting relationships with people on the outside. If you met Jeremy in a cafe you would never know he had endured so much suffering nor been in prison for so long, he comes across as normal, bright and he has a kind smile, he is plainly spoken and has straightforwardness about him. He copes by looking to a brighter future where the truth is shown in a court of law, he has faith that he will win his freedom, I believe he can do nothing more than this as he knows, as well as I do that the truth will out in the end. He says and I quote ‘you take one day at a time and before you know it you have done 25 years’.

[Jackiepreece]

Is that enough Hartley when you make stupid comments like that it just spurs me on

[Hartley]

Is that enough Hartley when you make stupid comments like that it just spurs me on

Good for you.  You passed the copy  and paste test. 

It still seems strange to me to talk about him in such a way when there still remains a very real chance that he is indeed guilty, however slight in your mind, the very real possibility exists that he's guilty.

[sandy]

Emilia di Girolamo - Writer
I don’t have a single doubt that Jeremy is innocent.

During the eight years I worked in offender rehabilitation, I met many men and women convicted of murder and other very serious crimes. Some I met fleetingly, others I worked with intensively but in all cases, it was clear that the person before me was capable of committing the offence their prison file told me they had committed. Even the prisoners who claimed to be innocent victims of a ‘fit up’, were betrayed by aspects of their personality, demeanor, little signs indicative of guilt. Working inside, I quickly learned to trust my instincts. My instincts told me Jeremy was innocent even before I read the huge amount of incredibly compelling evidence proving beyond any doubt, his conviction is unsafe.

Why was I so certain? I have studied many cases of family annihilation and women who have killed their own children, something we as a nation found incomprehensible in 1985. My knowledge of these cases, and of the typical profile of a family annihilator, meant Jeremy’s case never felt quite right to me. Jeremy doesn’t fit the profile of a family annihilator, though sadly his sister Sheila did fit the profile of a mother capable of killing her children.

It is incredibly difficult to accept a woman is capable of killing her own children but the sad truth is, since the murder at White House Farm, many women have committed equally tragic and terrible murders. There have been literally thousands of cases worldwide though there are the ones that stick in your head – Susan Smith who drove her car into a lake in 1994 with her two children strapped inside, Andrea Yates, the Texas mother who drowned her five children in the bath tub in 2001. In 2009, Rekha Kumari-Baker, stabbed her teenage daughters a total of 69 times. In 2010, Brit Lianne Smith, confessed to killing her two children in a Spanish hotel room. Just this month Theresa Riggi, pleaded guilty to killing her three children.

It’s disturbing and terrifying to the national psyche but it happens.

It is exactly what I believe happened that night at White House Farm. I believe Sheila, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, who had been directly challenged by her parents that very evening over her parenting skills, snapped, killing her children, her parents and then herself. It isn’t just my belief - there is overwhelming evidence that Sheila was alive inside the house, while Jeremy was outside with the police for several hours, before the police broke down the door. The police log, hidden from the defense at the time of Jeremy’s trial, clearly quotes Nevill Bamber, ‘My daughter’s gone beserk, she’s got hold of one of my guns’.

I don’t work in prison anymore. I work as a TV script writer and producer, writing television drama. Jeremy’s case is so bizarre, so loaded with mistakes, cover ups and conspiracies it’s way beyond anything I would dream up at my desk. But at the heart of this case is an innocent man who has been locked up far too long. The evidence is so overwhelming, the CCRC are going to look very stupid if they reject an appeal again.


My husband and I have come to know Jeremy well and we are one hundred percent certain the man we know is not capable of killing anyone. He is an extraordinary person who continues to work relentlessly to prove his innocence. He has a remarkable spirit, a rare strength of character and is a warm, compassionate and kind human being who I am deeply privileged to know.

It's such a pity the forensic evidence puts your semantics into the fantasy tray Jackiepreece.

Sheila couldn't possibly have gouged Nevill's arm and ended up with perfectly manicured long clean nails afterwards. Do read the evidence dear.

[sandy]

Lorna Lake
Why I believe in Jeremy Bamber by Lorna Lake

My grandmother had books on her shelves with such titles as “Poisoners of Women” and “Murder by Person or Persons Unknown” which were accounts of Victorian and early Twentieth Century crime which was enough to get me interested in the true crime genre. This was a time when the majority of the public believed that British Justice was fair - making only the “occasional” mistake. It was the concern about those mistakes that brought about the abolition of Capital Punishment in the United Kingdom in 1965.

There had been an outcry in 1923 when Edith Thompson was hanged - her husband was killed by her lover in October 1922 - the trial was a few weeks later in December where it was established that she influenced her lover and even though she did not physically carry out the murder she was convicted. There had been the infamous John Christie case – Christie was certainly guilty of six gruesome murders – he was tried in June 1953 and hanged in July 1953. But Timothy Evans had been already been hanged in 1950 for a murder that it had become clear Christie had committed. Timothy Evans was cleared of this murder in 1965 and posthumously pardoned.

There were other hideous errors: Mahmood Mattan had been hanged in 1952 and following years of campaigning he was declared innocent in 1998; Derek Bentley was hanged for his part in the shooting of a police officer even though it was known that he had learning disabilities and had not handled the gun – his “partner in crime” (who had fired the gun) was given a prison sentence as he was too young to face execution. The public had been greatly disturbed by the Ruth Ellis conviction – she shot her lover and though there was considerable evidence to demonstrate that she was emotionally unstable at the time, she was also hanged in July 1955.

But the repeal of Capital Punishment has not stopped great injustices being committed. In the last thirty years there have been many now infamous cases: Stephen Dowling imprisoned wrongly for 28 years; the Birmingham Six; Judith Ward in jail for 18 years; the Guildford Four and Jerry Maguire served 15 years; the Bridgewater Four – 18 years (though one man died in jail after only 2 years); Sean Hodgson served 27 years and Stefan Kiszko served 16 years and sadly died a broken man within a year of freedom.

The list goes on and each “case” represents human tragedy compounded by an antiquated legal system which has resisted reform and is somehow insulated against scrutiny. Too many convictions have been due to fabricated evidence and careless investigation on the part of the police.

The public is now able to access information regarding crimes and criminals on the internet – there is a wealth of detail available on dedicated sites which may even include post mortem results and even photographs of crime scenes. Mainly this is good – it leads to so-called “transparency” where we, the Great British Public, can become fully informed. There is a downside to all of this – the public is led to think that all information is available and this is simply not true. Some information regarding the Jeremy Bamber case is locked away under the rules of “PII” not only from the public but even from Jeremy’s Defence lawyers – in total 340,000 documents and 259 photographs are withheld. Jeremy has been in prison for 26 years for a crime he could not possibly have committed. There was absolutely no forensic evidence against him – all the evidence was circumstantial and witness statements that were demonstrably inaccurate.

The tragic deaths at White House Farm in August 1985 took from Jeremy a family who he loved as well as his freedom. Scott Lomax wrote the excellent book “Jeremy Bamber: Evil, almost beyond belief” which is certainly a very good introduction to the case. The available evidence totally supports Jeremy’s innocence and even now more evidence is coming to light despite Essex Police and the relatives having destroyed items which could have helped at the time of the trial and they even fabricated evidence too. There are many people who should truly hang their heads in shame for their part in this travesty. What started as a relatively simple but devastating family tragedy has turned into one of the gravest miscarriages of justice that this country has ever seen.

There’s another worrying aspect to this case – in 1985 Care in the Community was being introduced – the Great British Public was already concerned at the prospect of mad people being loose in the streets – the last thing the Establishment wanted was a family to be wiped out by a poor lady inadequately treated for schizophrenia. There was a great deal of money to be made from the new plans for the mentally ill – there were many psychiatric hospitals on prime building sites and many property developers were rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of the profits ahead. There have been many terrible incidents where mentally ill women have murdered their children during the past 25 years – Sheila was sadly the first. The Establishment had many reasons to find Jeremy Bamber guilty.

I had been initially a little nervous about writing to Jeremy – although I had no doubt about his innocence I was worried that my name and address might end up in the wrong hands – but after a little procrastination I plucked up the courage and wrote a card and enclosed some stamps and I was astonished when only 3 days later I received a very friendly letter in reply. That was the start of our regular correspondence – letters which contained news of his case and sincere friendship too. I have a lifetime’s experience of people and additionally I trained as a mental health nurse – I’ve never heard or read anything from Jeremy which has given me a moment’s doubt about his innocence. We speak on the phone regularly which of course has added a valuable dimension to our friendship not least his sense of humour. Jeremy is never self-absorbed despite his cruel circumstances and he always remembers to ask about my dear old uncle and even my dog. With little preamble I’ve asked Jeremy very direct questions about that night’s events – there’s never any hesitation in answering nor is there any hint that he resents such enquiry. I’ve seen it stated that Jeremy is arrogant – he is not – he is very intelligent, very loyal, very kind and very sensitive and he brings those qualities to his friendships. In short, and as has been said before, Jeremy is a very special yet ordinary man in truly extraordinary and outrageous circumstances.

I’m proud to call him My Friend.

He's had 25 years to get his story straight.  Nice guy now??   A common thief by his own testimony, now that says it all.  I believe Julie Mugfords evidence which was confirmed by several others clearly indicated what adopted son Jeremy though of Nevill, June, Sheila and the boys.  It's a pity they abandoned hanging for such crimes.

[grahameb]

Emilia di Girolamo - Writer
I don’t have a single doubt that Jeremy is innocent.

During the eight years I worked in offender rehabilitation, I met many men and women convicted of murder and other very serious crimes. Some I met fleetingly, others I worked with intensively but in all cases, it was clear that the person before me was capable of committing the offence their prison file told me they had committed. Even the prisoners who claimed to be innocent victims of a ‘fit up’, were betrayed by aspects of their personality, demeanor, little signs indicative of guilt. Working inside, I quickly learned to trust my instincts. My instincts told me Jeremy was innocent even before I read the huge amount of incredibly compelling evidence proving beyond any doubt, his conviction is unsafe.

Why was I so certain? I have studied many cases of family annihilation and women who have killed their own children, something we as a nation found incomprehensible in 1985. My knowledge of these cases, and of the typical profile of a family annihilator, meant Jeremy’s case never felt quite right to me. Jeremy doesn’t fit the profile of a family annihilator, though sadly his sister Sheila did fit the profile of a mother capable of killing her children.

It is incredibly difficult to accept a woman is capable of killing her own children but the sad truth is, since the murder at White House Farm, many women have committed equally tragic and terrible murders. There have been literally thousands of cases worldwide though there are the ones that stick in your head – Susan Smith who drove her car into a lake in 1994 with her two children strapped inside, Andrea Yates, the Texas mother who drowned her five children in the bath tub in 2001. In 2009, Rekha Kumari-Baker, stabbed her teenage daughters a total of 69 times. In 2010, Brit Lianne Smith, confessed to killing her two children in a Spanish hotel room. Just this month Theresa Riggi, pleaded guilty to killing her three children.

It’s disturbing and terrifying to the national psyche but it happens.

It is exactly what I believe happened that night at White House Farm. I believe Sheila, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, who had been directly challenged by her parents that very evening over her parenting skills, snapped, killing her children, her parents and then herself. It isn’t just my belief - there is overwhelming evidence that Sheila was alive inside the house, while Jeremy was outside with the police for several hours, before the police broke down the door. The police log, hidden from the defense at the time of Jeremy’s trial, clearly quotes Nevill Bamber, ‘My daughter’s gone beserk, she’s got hold of one of my guns’.

I don’t work in prison anymore. I work as a TV script writer and producer, writing television drama. Jeremy’s case is so bizarre, so loaded with mistakes, cover ups and conspiracies it’s way beyond anything I would dream up at my desk. But at the heart of this case is an innocent man who has been locked up far too long. The evidence is so overwhelming, the CCRC are going to look very stupid if they reject an appeal again.


My husband and I have come to know Jeremy well and we are one hundred percent certain the man we know is not capable of killing anyone. He is an extraordinary person who continues to work relentlessly to prove his innocence. He has a remarkable spirit, a rare strength of character and is a warm, compassionate and kind human being who I am deeply privileged to know.

It's such a pity the forensic evidence puts your semantics into the fantasy tray Jackiepreece.

Sheila couldn't possibly have gouged Nevill's arm and ended up with perfectly manicured long clean nails afterwards. Do read the evidence dear.

Apparently she had a nail missing? They were also chipped. By the way do all women go to bed with false nails on?

[sandy]

Apparently she had a nail missing? They were also chipped. By the way do all women go to bed with false nails on?

Apparently you are wrong.

The firearms officers who were the first to see her body noted that her feet and hands were “perfectly clean”. Her fingernails were well manicured and not broken and there were no marks or indentations on any of her fingers. All her fingertips were clean and free from any blood, dirt or powder and there appeared to be no trace of any lead dust or coating which is usual when handling .22 ammunition.

DC Hammersley, the Scenes of Crimes Officer placed plastic bags over Sheila's hands and feet before her body was removed from the farmhouse. He saw some blood staining to the back of the right hand, but apart from that the hands, to his eye were clean and the nails intact.

Sheila never attacked anyone, Sheila never gouged Nevill's arm, Sheila never came anywhere near ammunition never mind load a magazine twice.

[grahameb]

Lorna Lake
Why I believe in Jeremy Bamber by Lorna Lake

My grandmother had books on her shelves with such titles as “Poisoners of Women” and “Murder by Person or Persons Unknown” which were accounts of Victorian and early Twentieth Century crime which was enough to get me interested in the true crime genre. This was a time when the majority of the public believed that British Justice was fair - making only the “occasional” mistake. It was the concern about those mistakes that brought about the abolition of Capital Punishment in the United Kingdom in 1965.

There had been an outcry in 1923 when Edith Thompson was hanged - her husband was killed by her lover in October 1922 - the trial was a few weeks later in December where it was established that she influenced her lover and even though she did not physically carry out the murder she was convicted. There had been the infamous John Christie case – Christie was certainly guilty of six gruesome murders – he was tried in June 1953 and hanged in July 1953. But Timothy Evans had been already been hanged in 1950 for a murder that it had become clear Christie had committed. Timothy Evans was cleared of this murder in 1965 and posthumously pardoned.

There were other hideous errors: Mahmood Mattan had been hanged in 1952 and following years of campaigning he was declared innocent in 1998; Derek Bentley was hanged for his part in the shooting of a police officer even though it was known that he had learning disabilities and had not handled the gun – his “partner in crime” (who had fired the gun) was given a prison sentence as he was too young to face execution. The public had been greatly disturbed by the Ruth Ellis conviction – she shot her lover and though there was considerable evidence to demonstrate that she was emotionally unstable at the time, she was also hanged in July 1955.

But the repeal of Capital Punishment has not stopped great injustices being committed. In the last thirty years there have been many now infamous cases: Stephen Dowling imprisoned wrongly for 28 years; the Birmingham Six; Judith Ward in jail for 18 years; the Guildford Four and Jerry Maguire served 15 years; the Bridgewater Four – 18 years (though one man died in jail after only 2 years); Sean Hodgson served 27 years and Stefan Kiszko served 16 years and sadly died a broken man within a year of freedom.

The list goes on and each “case” represents human tragedy compounded by an antiquated legal system which has resisted reform and is somehow insulated against scrutiny. Too many convictions have been due to fabricated evidence and careless investigation on the part of the police.

The public is now able to access information regarding crimes and criminals on the internet – there is a wealth of detail available on dedicated sites which may even include post mortem results and even photographs of crime scenes. Mainly this is good – it leads to so-called “transparency” where we, the Great British Public, can become fully informed. There is a downside to all of this – the public is led to think that all information is available and this is simply not true. Some information regarding the Jeremy Bamber case is locked away under the rules of “PII” not only from the public but even from Jeremy’s Defence lawyers – in total 340,000 documents and 259 photographs are withheld. Jeremy has been in prison for 26 years for a crime he could not possibly have committed. There was absolutely no forensic evidence against him – all the evidence was circumstantial and witness statements that were demonstrably inaccurate.

The tragic deaths at White House Farm in August 1985 took from Jeremy a family who he loved as well as his freedom. Scott Lomax wrote the excellent book “Jeremy Bamber: Evil, almost beyond belief” which is certainly a very good introduction to the case. The available evidence totally supports Jeremy’s innocence and even now more evidence is coming to light despite Essex Police and the relatives having destroyed items which could have helped at the time of the trial and they even fabricated evidence too. There are many people who should truly hang their heads in shame for their part in this travesty. What started as a relatively simple but devastating family tragedy has turned into one of the gravest miscarriages of justice that this country has ever seen.

There’s another worrying aspect to this case – in 1985 Care in the Community was being introduced – the Great British Public was already concerned at the prospect of mad people being loose in the streets – the last thing the Establishment wanted was a family to be wiped out by a poor lady inadequately treated for schizophrenia. There was a great deal of money to be made from the new plans for the mentally ill – there were many psychiatric hospitals on prime building sites and many property developers were rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of the profits ahead. There have been many terrible incidents where mentally ill women have murdered their children during the past 25 years – Sheila was sadly the first. The Establishment had many reasons to find Jeremy Bamber guilty.

I had been initially a little nervous about writing to Jeremy – although I had no doubt about his innocence I was worried that my name and address might end up in the wrong hands – but after a little procrastination I plucked up the courage and wrote a card and enclosed some stamps and I was astonished when only 3 days later I received a very friendly letter in reply. That was the start of our regular correspondence – letters which contained news of his case and sincere friendship too. I have a lifetime’s experience of people and additionally I trained as a mental health nurse – I’ve never heard or read anything from Jeremy which has given me a moment’s doubt about his innocence. We speak on the phone regularly which of course has added a valuable dimension to our friendship not least his sense of humour. Jeremy is never self-absorbed despite his cruel circumstances and he always remembers to ask about my dear old uncle and even my dog. With little preamble I’ve asked Jeremy very direct questions about that night’s events – there’s never any hesitation in answering nor is there any hint that he resents such enquiry. I’ve seen it stated that Jeremy is arrogant – he is not – he is very intelligent, very loyal, very kind and very sensitive and he brings those qualities to his friendships. In short, and as has been said before, Jeremy is a very special yet ordinary man in truly extraordinary and outrageous circumstances.

I’m proud to call him My Friend.

He's had 25 years to get his story straight.  Nice guy now??   A common thief by his own testimony however.

He's had 26 years to grow up as well. We all change over the years whoever we are. You can't keep branding him a thief. Would you like it if someone kept accusing you of something you did years ago like shoplifting for instance? We keep judging JB for what he was. and I'm not referring to the murders, but to the petty thieving. People seem to have forgiven Julie Mugford ok.

[sandy]

Lorna Lake
Why I believe in Jeremy Bamber by Lorna Lake

My grandmother had books on her shelves with such titles as “Poisoners of Women” and “Murder by Person or Persons Unknown” which were accounts of Victorian and early Twentieth Century crime which was enough to get me interested in the true crime genre. This was a time when the majority of the public believed that British Justice was fair - making only the “occasional” mistake. It was the concern about those mistakes that brought about the abolition of Capital Punishment in the United Kingdom in 1965.

There had been an outcry in 1923 when Edith Thompson was hanged - her husband was killed by her lover in October 1922 - the trial was a few weeks later in December where it was established that she influenced her lover and even though she did not physically carry out the murder she was convicted. There had been the infamous John Christie case – Christie was certainly guilty of six gruesome murders – he was tried in June 1953 and hanged in July 1953. But Timothy Evans had been already been hanged in 1950 for a murder that it had become clear Christie had committed. Timothy Evans was cleared of this murder in 1965 and posthumously pardoned.

There were other hideous errors: Mahmood Mattan had been hanged in 1952 and following years of campaigning he was declared innocent in 1998; Derek Bentley was hanged for his part in the shooting of a police officer even though it was known that he had learning disabilities and had not handled the gun – his “partner in crime” (who had fired the gun) was given a prison sentence as he was too young to face execution. The public had been greatly disturbed by the Ruth Ellis conviction – she shot her lover and though there was considerable evidence to demonstrate that she was emotionally unstable at the time, she was also hanged in July 1955.

But the repeal of Capital Punishment has not stopped great injustices being committed. In the last thirty years there have been many now infamous cases: Stephen Dowling imprisoned wrongly for 28 years; the Birmingham Six; Judith Ward in jail for 18 years; the Guildford Four and Jerry Maguire served 15 years; the Bridgewater Four – 18 years (though one man died in jail after only 2 years); Sean Hodgson served 27 years and Stefan Kiszko served 16 years and sadly died a broken man within a year of freedom.

The list goes on and each “case” represents human tragedy compounded by an antiquated legal system which has resisted reform and is somehow insulated against scrutiny. Too many convictions have been due to fabricated evidence and careless investigation on the part of the police.

The public is now able to access information regarding crimes and criminals on the internet – there is a wealth of detail available on dedicated sites which may even include post mortem results and even photographs of crime scenes. Mainly this is good – it leads to so-called “transparency” where we, the Great British Public, can become fully informed. There is a downside to all of this – the public is led to think that all information is available and this is simply not true. Some information regarding the Jeremy Bamber case is locked away under the rules of “PII” not only from the public but even from Jeremy’s Defence lawyers – in total 340,000 documents and 259 photographs are withheld. Jeremy has been in prison for 26 years for a crime he could not possibly have committed. There was absolutely no forensic evidence against him – all the evidence was circumstantial and witness statements that were demonstrably inaccurate.

The tragic deaths at White House Farm in August 1985 took from Jeremy a family who he loved as well as his freedom. Scott Lomax wrote the excellent book “Jeremy Bamber: Evil, almost beyond belief” which is certainly a very good introduction to the case. The available evidence totally supports Jeremy’s innocence and even now more evidence is coming to light despite Essex Police and the relatives having destroyed items which could have helped at the time of the trial and they even fabricated evidence too. There are many people who should truly hang their heads in shame for their part in this travesty. What started as a relatively simple but devastating family tragedy has turned into one of the gravest miscarriages of justice that this country has ever seen.

There’s another worrying aspect to this case – in 1985 Care in the Community was being introduced – the Great British Public was already concerned at the prospect of mad people being loose in the streets – the last thing the Establishment wanted was a family to be wiped out by a poor lady inadequately treated for schizophrenia. There was a great deal of money to be made from the new plans for the mentally ill – there were many psychiatric hospitals on prime building sites and many property developers were rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of the profits ahead. There have been many terrible incidents where mentally ill women have murdered their children during the past 25 years – Sheila was sadly the first. The Establishment had many reasons to find Jeremy Bamber guilty.

I had been initially a little nervous about writing to Jeremy – although I had no doubt about his innocence I was worried that my name and address might end up in the wrong hands – but after a little procrastination I plucked up the courage and wrote a card and enclosed some stamps and I was astonished when only 3 days later I received a very friendly letter in reply. That was the start of our regular correspondence – letters which contained news of his case and sincere friendship too. I have a lifetime’s experience of people and additionally I trained as a mental health nurse – I’ve never heard or read anything from Jeremy which has given me a moment’s doubt about his innocence. We speak on the phone regularly which of course has added a valuable dimension to our friendship not least his sense of humour. Jeremy is never self-absorbed despite his cruel circumstances and he always remembers to ask about my dear old uncle and even my dog. With little preamble I’ve asked Jeremy very direct questions about that night’s events – there’s never any hesitation in answering nor is there any hint that he resents such enquiry. I’ve seen it stated that Jeremy is arrogant – he is not – he is very intelligent, very loyal, very kind and very sensitive and he brings those qualities to his friendships. In short, and as has been said before, Jeremy is a very special yet ordinary man in truly extraordinary and outrageous circumstances.

I’m proud to call him My Friend.

He's had 25 years to get his story straight.  Nice guy now??   A common thief by his own testimony however.

He's had 26 years to grow up as well. We all change over the years whoever we are. You can't keep branding him a thief. Would you like it if someone kept accusing you of something you did years ago like shoplifting for instance? We keep judging JB for what he was. and I'm not referring to the murders, but to the petty thieving. People seem to have forgiven Julie Mugford ok.

Julie Mugford didn't slaughter 5 members of her own family in cold blood.  Julie Mugford did the decent thing in the end when she saw Jeremy for what he really was capable of.  Good on Julie for speaking out against the monstrous crime.

[Alias]

Emilia di Girolamo - Writer
I don’t have a single doubt that Jeremy is innocent.

During the eight years I worked in offender rehabilitation, I met many men and women convicted of murder and other very serious crimes. Some I met fleetingly, others I worked with intensively but in all cases, it was clear that the person before me was capable of committing the offence their prison file told me they had committed. Even the prisoners who claimed to be innocent victims of a ‘fit up’, were betrayed by aspects of their personality, demeanor, little signs indicative of guilt. Working inside, I quickly learned to trust my instincts. My instincts told me Jeremy was innocent even before I read the huge amount of incredibly compelling evidence proving beyond any doubt, his conviction is unsafe.

Why was I so certain? I have studied many cases of family annihilation and women who have killed their own children, something we as a nation found incomprehensible in 1985. My knowledge of these cases, and of the typical profile of a family annihilator, meant Jeremy’s case never felt quite right to me. Jeremy doesn’t fit the profile of a family annihilator, though sadly his sister Sheila did fit the profile of a mother capable of killing her children.

It is incredibly difficult to accept a woman is capable of killing her own children but the sad truth is, since the murder at White House Farm, many women have committed equally tragic and terrible murders. There have been literally thousands of cases worldwide though there are the ones that stick in your head – Susan Smith who drove her car into a lake in 1994 with her two children strapped inside, Andrea Yates, the Texas mother who drowned her five children in the bath tub in 2001. In 2009, Rekha Kumari-Baker, stabbed her teenage daughters a total of 69 times. In 2010, Brit Lianne Smith, confessed to killing her two children in a Spanish hotel room. Just this month Theresa Riggi, pleaded guilty to killing her three children.

It’s disturbing and terrifying to the national psyche but it happens.

It is exactly what I believe happened that night at White House Farm. I believe Sheila, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, who had been directly challenged by her parents that very evening over her parenting skills, snapped, killing her children, her parents and then herself. It isn’t just my belief - there is overwhelming evidence that Sheila was alive inside the house, while Jeremy was outside with the police for several hours, before the police broke down the door. The police log, hidden from the defense at the time of Jeremy’s trial, clearly quotes Nevill Bamber, ‘My daughter’s gone beserk, she’s got hold of one of my guns’.

I don’t work in prison anymore. I work as a TV script writer and producer, writing television drama. Jeremy’s case is so bizarre, so loaded with mistakes, cover ups and conspiracies it’s way beyond anything I would dream up at my desk. But at the heart of this case is an innocent man who has been locked up far too long. The evidence is so overwhelming, the CCRC are going to look very stupid if they reject an appeal again.


My husband and I have come to know Jeremy well and we are one hundred percent certain the man we know is not capable of killing anyone. He is an extraordinary person who continues to work relentlessly to prove his innocence. He has a remarkable spirit, a rare strength of character and is a warm, compassionate and kind human being who I am deeply privileged to know.

It's such a pity the forensic evidence puts your semantics into the fantasy tray Jackiepreece.

Sheila couldn't possibly have gouged Nevill's arm and ended up with perfectly manicured long clean nails afterwards. Do read the evidence dear.

Apparently she had a nail missing? They were also chipped. By the way do all women go to bed with false nails on?

I have not heard that Sheila was wearing false nails. Was she?? They were not common in the eighties at all to my knowledge.
I think it is common that women go to bed with false nails on - they are GLUED on with a hefty type glue.
About her fingernails being chipped and one missing (?? if not false nails); where do you have that information from?

[Roch]

Apparently she had a nail missing? They were also chipped. By the way do all women go to bed with false nails on?

Apparently you are wrong.

The firearms officers who were the first to see her body noted that her feet and hands were “perfectly clean”. Her fingernails were well manicured and not broken and there were no marks or indentations on any of her fingers. All her fingertips were clean and free from any blood, dirt or powder and there appeared to be no trace of any lead dust or coating which is usual when handling .22 ammunition.

DC Hammersley, the Scenes of Crimes Officer placed plastic bags over Sheila's hands and feet before her body was removed from the farmhouse. He saw some blood staining to the back of the right hand, but apart from that the hands, to his eye were clean and the nails intact.

Sheila never attacked anyone, Sheila never gouged Nevill's arm, Sheila never came anywhere near ammunition never mind load a magazine twice.

He wasn't there.

[Jackiepreece]

Sandy whoever you are Jeremy did not have any marks on him and I am sure the Chief Prosecution Witness JULIE MUGFORD would have noticed any marks on his naked body I am sure if he had that could have been her exclusive bit of information that would have proved she was telling the truth.

But we don't have it do we not a single piece from her.  As regards the crime scene it's been accepted it was the keystone cops at work.
Maybe if Jeremy and his defence team had sight of the 72% crime scene photos and the original file everyone would learn more about what went on at whf
Maybe one of the photos shows Peter Eaton hiding in the corner you never know

Nothing to hide show us everything!

As for poor Sheila it sounds like she could have been moved all over the place

The police, the justice system it's a disgrace and as for Jeremy being a theif try telling anyone that will listen that equals mass murde

Just get back to your farm because I am bored now

[Kaldin]

Apparently she had a nail missing? They were also chipped. By the way do all women go to bed with false nails on?

Apparently you are wrong.

The firearms officers who were the first to see her body noted that her feet and hands were “perfectly clean”. Her fingernails were well manicured and not broken and there were no marks or indentations on any of her fingers. All her fingertips were clean and free from any blood, dirt or powder and there appeared to be no trace of any lead dust or coating which is usual when handling .22 ammunition.

DC Hammersley, the Scenes of Crimes Officer placed plastic bags over Sheila's hands and feet before her body was removed from the farmhouse. He saw some blood staining to the back of the right hand, but apart from that the hands, to his eye were clean and the nails intact.

Sheila never attacked anyone, Sheila never gouged Nevill's arm, Sheila never came anywhere near ammunition never mind load a magazine twice.

How would the firearms officers know all that? They weren't supposed to have touched the body, and according to the photos, Sheila's fingertips and palms weren't really very visible.

[grahameb]

Apparently she had a nail missing? They were also chipped. By the way do all women go to bed with false nails on?

Apparently you are wrong.

The firearms officers who were the first to see her body noted that her feet and hands were “perfectly clean”. Her fingernails were well manicured and not broken and there were no marks or indentations on any of her fingers. All her fingertips were clean and free from any blood, dirt or powder and there appeared to be no trace of any lead dust or coating which is usual when handling .22 ammunition.

DC Hammersley, the Scenes of Crimes Officer placed plastic bags over Sheila's hands and feet before her body was removed from the farmhouse. He saw some blood staining to the back of the right hand, but apart from that the hands, to his eye were clean and the nails intact.

Sheila never attacked anyone, Sheila never gouged Nevill's arm, Sheila never came anywhere near ammunition never mind load a magazine twice.

Didn't Mike say something about one of Sheila Caffell's finger nails being found by Ann Eaton? If this is true then it doesn't matter what police offices said. It proves them wrong. It would be good if Mike could re-post that piece of information?

[grahameb]

Apparently she had a nail missing? They were also chipped. By the way do all women go to bed with false nails on?

Apparently you are wrong.

The firearms officers who were the first to see her body noted that her feet and hands were “perfectly clean”. Her fingernails were well manicured and not broken and there were no marks or indentations on any of her fingers. All her fingertips were clean and free from any blood, dirt or powder and there appeared to be no trace of any lead dust or coating which is usual when handling .22 ammunition.

DC Hammersley, the Scenes of Crimes Officer placed plastic bags over Sheila's hands and feet before her body was removed from the farmhouse. He saw some blood staining to the back of the right hand, but apart from that the hands, to his eye were clean and the nails intact.

Sheila never attacked anyone, Sheila never gouged Nevill's arm, Sheila never came anywhere near ammunition never mind load a magazine twice.

Didn't Mike say something about one of Sheila Caffell's finger nails being found by Ann Eaton? If this is true then it doesn't matter what police offices said. It proves them wrong. It would be good if Mike could re-post that piece of information?

Here's the link:
http://jeremybamberforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,172.msg422/topicseen.html#msg422