The phone call. 'Terrified' father calls....doesn't call 999, gets phone book, calls witham, back to phone book, calls chelmsford, gets agitated, calls Julie, leaves house, gets overtaken by Police car. (Team JB now creeping time of call and introducing another call to get round some of the problems with this.)
Hi Vic,
Thank you for your reply. I shan't have time te reply to all of it this evening but I'll make a few points now.
As Jeremy has said, this was the 1980s when mental illness was still regarded as shameful, something to be hidden away and not discussed. Nevill and June clearly did not discuss the extent of Sheila's illness even with their extended family, or the extended family would not have had so little understanding of how very ill Sheila was. There may well have been an unspoken understanding in the Bamber family that, in the event of Sheila having one of her psychotic episodes, the local police, whom Nevill, a JP, was likely to know, should be called in. That would have allowed Nevill to manage the situation by getting Sheila into a private hospital, thereby avoiding involving social services and bypassing the gossip network in the village.
Regarding the call to JM. Jeremy would almost certainly have felt in conflict regarding what his response should be. Should he do what his father wanted him to do and go to WHF, or should he first call the police? My instinctive response would have been to ring my brother for support and advice and that may have been why Jeremy rang JM. In the event, however, as JM said in her statement, she was still half asleep when she answered.
Regarding the speed at which Jeremy drove to WHF, I've read here that he drove slowly because the police had instructed him to wait for them.
