That's incorrect. It's irrelevant anyway, as a telephone line (even a party line) cannot be used for two calls at the same time. This changed slightly with the introduction of digital telephone exchanges, but those exchanges didn't support party lines.
Due to the fact that DCI Harris used the kitchen phone, between 8.15am to 8.30am, and 'he' left the handset of 'that' phone off its cradle on the kitchen worktop, it is not certain that dad used 'that' same phone to message J, (3.25am), or to call cops (3.26am). Ralph could have used the upstairs office phone to make those calls. The fact is that the panic button (transponder device) was activated at 3.29am precisely, which eventually caused the occupants of CA07 to be deployed to the incident five to six minutes later. By the time dad activated the panic button, he had already had ample time to pass the details to cops which got wrote into the contents of the 3.26am phone log. Once that information was imparted by dad to cop, he simply put the handset down on its receiver (whichever phone he used) and went about the business of trying to control or to try and prevent what as it turned out was a life or death situation, and it was then that dad activated the transponder device at 3.29am. There is no proof that at the time the panic button got activated at precisely 3.29am, that any handset on any phone inside that house was off its cradle at that time. We can't rely upon the fact that the kitchen phone was off its cradle at that time because of DCI Harris' use of it later. We know that by 3.56am that one of the phones was off it's hook because in dads phone log message account that fact is recorded there towards the foot of the log. Dad did not pass that information recorded there somebody else did. Similarly dad did not pass the information regarding the son contacting cm with a similar message, since that part of the log was passed to Malcolm Bonnet from PC West. For all we know, dad back at the farmhouse cancelled the call (3.26am) to cops. So that he could activate the panic button because once he realised that it would take 45 minutes or so for a response vehicle to get to pages lane, Tolleshunt D'arcy from Chelmsford, he could have thought someone closer might be able to react far more quickly to the activation of the panic alarm, as opposed to the phone call he had just made. This is what transpired as it turned out because the occupants of CA07 were deployed to the scene earlier, before J made his own call to cops, and before Chelmsford deployed the occupants of CA05 in response to J's as it were, follow up call. Once Ralph had activated the panic button (3.29am) he may well have tried to use one of the phones again in a different part of the house but been unable to do so because he had activated the alarm which was still active by 3.56am, and beyond...
We know that the operator was able to use an 'emergency' option open to her when checking a telephone line, to eavesdrop the immediate vicinity of the phone in question, and after this option had been exercised she reported to cops that the handset of the phone had been 'left' off its cradle. She wasn't aware how many phones there were inside the farmhouse. She did not know that there were four phones in the farmhouse, or that only two of them were plugged in. The two plugged in, were the one in the kitchen, and the one in the upstairs office. At one stage, she checked the line and reported to cops that she could hear a dog barking in the background. Just as a matter of interest when cops entered the farmhouse they discovered 'Crispy' the pet dog cowling under the parents bed in the upstairs bedroom (closer to the upstairs office phone, than the downstairs kitchen phone). What is a striking feature of the 'open line' status of the phone when being checked by the operator, was that she was 'unable' to confirm that the open line was connected to any other telephone anywhere else. What this suggests is that the phone in question, the one left off the hook, had simply been lifted off its cradle, and then for whatever reason left off the hook, without the caller dialing out. At the earliest stage (around 3.56am) it is not even known which of the two active phones at the farmhouse had its handset off the hook? Somewhere, mid cop operation, the phone line suddenly became 'engaged'. This is significant because up until then when the operator had been carrying out checks on the line, she had reported that the line was 'open' with the phone off the hook and she could hear a dog barking in the background. The fact that the phone line suddenly became 'engaged', tells a story of its own. Somebody who was still alive inside the farmhouse, had done something with the phone that had 'changed' its status. From 'that' point onward, cops got the operator to patch the connection through to them back in the control room. We then find, that the phone line eventually reverts back to an 'open line' status again. From inquiries I have made over the past two and a half decades into this 'mysterious' change in the phones status, I am led to believe that the 'unplugging' of telephones from the socket can produce this effect. Considering that there were four phones at the farm, with by the end of play only two phones plugged in, and one of these had been potentially plugged in at the kitchen socket, when it seemingly belonged upstairs in the bedroom, it appears to be a good argument for somebody who was alive inside the farmhouse having 'unplugged' all the phones, or alternatively, that 'someone from inside the farmhouse was having a conversation with someone using the phone. It may not be just a coincidence that in one of the police message logs, at an entry timed '5.25am, its states that ' firearm officers are engaged in a conversation with a person from inside the farmhouse'...
Having said all of this, about the different phones that were in the farmhouse, at the end of the day only two phones were plugged in, open line status, engaged tone status, a word now about the use of these 'transponder type' panic button devices being used by the Regional Crime Squads, and the security services back in August 1985, did not require the use of a telephone wire. The signal was transmitted over the air and the 'black box' type control device could either be 'battery powered', or fed from the mains. In the transponders used during the surveillances carried out on me between 1985 and 1991, the tracking devices cops fitted beneath two family cars were 'battery' fed - the signals emitted from these black boxes were picked up by other equipment fitted to three different surveillance vehicles which received the signal from the transponder they had fitted to one of my cars, and by plotting the signal on a map through 'triangulation' they were supposed to be able establish the exact location at all times the operation was ongoing. Panic alarms in use at that time, could be operated by phone line, or by 'transponder' method, where the black control box was simply plugged in at the mains, and communicated 'directly' to the nearest manned police station. The nearest 24 hour manned police station to whf was Witham police station. I just want to say a little bit more about the type of 'transponder' box used at whf at the time of the shootings. Portable panic buttons allowed dad and mum to roam about the house, or outside in the grounds of the farmhouse, which continually updated the transmitter as to their whereabouts providing they were carrying the 'portable devices' with them at all times. What I have found out is 'astonishing' regarding the 'transponder' device panic alarm fitted at the scene of this tragedy. The most important aspect is that it was 'activated' at 3.29am. This convinces me that by that stage, and not a moment sooner, 'did the shooting start'. Nobody knows whether dad or mum activated the portable device. The most likeliest guess would be that dad did it, what with mum shot in bed. But I could be wrong. I believe the shooting started at 3.29am, which means that when dad made the 3.25am call to J, nobody had been shot by that stage or dad would have said something to J regarding that fact. However, by the time dad called cops at 3.26am, things appear to have started to deteriorate...
