Julia Jeapes' was a trained firearm instructor who was part of the containment team which surrounded the farmhouse after her arrival at the scene at about 7.00am with a second group of technical support officers! She was deployed in an observation and containment role! In her possession she had a police weapon fitted with a telescopic site! She was in position checking the windows of the farmhouse from a safe distance using her scope just prior to the selected six man raid team commenced it's approach to enter the house via the rear court yard door which they intended to smash open using a sledgehammer they carried! In her witness statement she describes being in position and observing the raid party making their way toward the courtyard door. She reported what she believed was a rifle leaning against a first floor window situated on the red brick part of the farmhouse. No-one had seen that rifle there previously, and so it poses the question, how soon prior to Julia Jeapes' seeing 'it' there, had someone placed it there? She saw the rifle there at 'this' first floor window at about 7.15am, or shortly afterwards! In any event, as a trained firearms instructor it is important to remember that she was capable of knowing the different between a shotgun, and or, a rifle!
The term used in her witness statement was that what she could see, was a rifle!
The first floor window in question, has since been identified as the 'box room' window, situated on the courtyard side of the farmhouse, a room which is situated between the parents main bedroom and the bedroom where the two child victims slept on that last occasion! The 'box room' has two connecting doors, one which connects the parents main bedroom to 'it', and the other which gives access to the bedroom where the children were sleeping!
More significantly, 'that' rifle was resting there, at the 'box room' window, when the raid team smashed the courtyard door off its hinges and entered the premises at around 7.35am!