and about David Doutflour.
Bamber claims that David Boutflour found
the silencer on September 11, not August 10, and
was “prevailed upon” to engage in a conspiracy
and backdate it. Boutflour, of course, says this
is nonsense, and everything happened just as
he said it did at the time and repeated in court.
“Just to put it clearly,” Boutflour said at the
end of our meeting, “I have never had any
doubts that Jeremy is guilty.”
He says that the scratch marks were
deliberately made to incriminate him
later‚ all part of a plan to frame him for
the murders and ensure that he did not
receive his rightful inheritance. His
cousin David Boutflour dismisses his
claim as ‘absolute piffle’
When David Boutflour,
Ann Eaton and Anthony Pargeter went to
raise their suspicions of Bamber with him, he
was having none of it
Jones conducted a bare minimum of
forensic inquiry and returned the house keys
to the family after two days so that Jeremy’s
cousins David Boutflour and Ann Eaton could
go in and have a clean-up. David and Ann’s
father, Robert, was there too that day. He was
married to June Bamber’s sister Pamela. (Robert
is now in his nineties and suffering from
Alzheimer’s.) Nowadays, of course, the property
would be sealed for weeks and the forensic
inquiries would be painstaking, but in the 1980s,
senior officers were often a law unto themselves,
and once they — some of them — had made their
minds up, that was that.
20
what had happened. Boutflour ignored the letter
and insisted to me when we met that there was no
conspiracy, no perjuring, no fit-up.
Ann Eaton moved into the farm not long after
the murders and still lives there with her family.
Bamber told me he thought she was a “sick
puppy” for doing that. Eaton would not talk to me
for this article — indeed, after I wrote her a polite
letter I received a “warning” call from an Essex
police detective superintendent asking me to
leave her alone, which I did — but David Boutflour
was generous and spoke to me at length. It is clear
he doesn’t understand his sister’s actions either.
How could she? Boutflour told me he knew Ann’s
children had suffered nightmares. As well you
might. Bamber said she was “as cold as ice”.
At the very least, the killings created lasting
schisms across the family, mostly to do with
money and inheritance. A third, more distant
cousin, Anthony Pargeter, has waged his own
long legal struggle against the estate, to claim
what he believes is his share. I was told he had
suffered his own mental anguish as a result.
amber was downgraded some years
ago from a Category-A prisoner to
Category-B, meaning he was not such a
risk of escape and his conditions could be slightly
relaxed. He was upgraded again to Cat-A,
apparently after his cousins complained, having
received guidance from Essex police on how they
might make their feelings about his change of
status known. It was apparent he feels very
resentful about that. Of course the police advice
might be seen as perfectly proper, but Bamber
insists the cousins were simply being vindictive.
While Bamber began living it large after the
killings, spending money on holidays, meals and
drinks for him and his girlfriend, 21-year-old Julie
Mugford, and other friends, his relatives — Ann,
David and their father, Robert — quickly became
suspicious. They doubted Sheila was capable of
the shootings and watched Bamber carefully for
signs of suspect behaviour, imagining all kinds of
fancy theories about how he might have got to and
from the farm undetected, using a bicycle to get
there and a small unlatched window to gain entry.
During the clean-up on August 10, by his own
account David Boutflour picked up some
ammunition that was lying around and went to
return it to the gun cupboard where he found
hidden away the sound moderator — we can call
it the “silencer” — of the murder weapon. It was
sticky as if it had been hurriedly cleaned, and
appeared to show spots of blood and flecks of
red paint, and a single hair.
Boutflour told me: “I remember some things like
it was yesterday. I remember finding the silencer.
He’s suggesting that we fraudulently shoved
the paint and the blood in to make it appear he
had done it. Well, that’s a load of rubbish. What
would be the point? There was enough evidence
anyway. What an absolute load of piffle.”
Bamber was
disinherited on conviction and the estate passed
to the Boutflours. He believes David Boutflour
might “admit” his part in this conspiracy
and wrote to him not long ago asking him to
“play the white man” and be honest about what had happened. Boutflour ignored the letter
and insisted to me when we met that there was no
conspiracy, no perjuring, no fit-up.
But David Boutflour
was generous and spoke to me at length. It is clear
he doesn’t understand his sister’s actions either.
How could she? Boutflour told me he knew Ann’s
children had suffered nightmares. As well you
might. Bamber said she was “as cold as ice”.
At the very least, the killings created lasting
schisms across the family, mostly to do with
money and inheritance. A third, more distant
cousin, Anthony Pargeter, has waged his own
long legal struggle against the estate, to claim
what he believes is his share. I was told he had
suffered his own mental anguish as a result.
