In the early hours of 7th August 1985, five members of the Bamber family were found dead by Essex Police after forcibly entering their home at Whitehouse Farm shortly after 7.00am. The police had been alerted by Jeremy Bamber after he received a phone call from his adoptive father, Nevill Bamber, telling him that his adopted daughter Sheila had gone berserk and had a gun.
Jeremy Bamber was at his own house a few miles away when sometime after 3.00am he received the phone call from Nevill his distraught father. Jeremy called the local police on a landline at 03.36am. He then met up with the police outside the Whitehouse farm. The police waited till after 7.00am before forcing entry to the house. There they found the five bodies – Nevill and June, Sheila and her twin boys -all dead from gunshot wounds.
Jeremy Bamber was the adopted son of Nevill and June Bamber from Tolleshunt D’Arcy in Essex. They also had adopted Sheila some years before adopting Jeremy. She had been briefly married to Colin Caffell with whom she had twin boys. On the night of the killings, Sheila and her boys were staying at the Whitehouse Farm with her adoptive parents.
A year before the murders, Sheila had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital for treatment. She refused to cooperate and began self -medicating with cannabis and cocaine. Things began to go downhill.
When the local police entered Whitehouse Farm that morning, they found Sheila lying dead with a rifle belonging to her father across her body. There was no silencer attached to the rifle. The issue of a silencer would later become significant in the trial
Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Thomas “Taff” Jones was appointed to lead the investigation into the killings and concluded that it was a murder/suicide case.
The Vicar conducting the funeral service praised Nevill and June as “valued leaders” of the parish and asked “God’s mercy for Sheila, sadly and tragically deranged.”
However, others within the family circle had other concerns. Their biggest concern was who was going to inherit the valuable estate. Sometime previously, Nevill and June had made a Will leaving their estate worth almost £2million in today’s valuations, to be divided equally between Sheila and Jeremy.
Within days of the killings, a niece of June Bamber named Ann Eaton (nee Boutflour) visited Jeremy. She later convinced her father Robert Boutflour, a brother of June Bamber, that Jeremy had carried out the killings in order to inherit the estate. The Boutflours put immense pressure on police investigating the killings to listen to their theories of what had happened and how they believed that Jeremy Bamber was responsible for the murders. They referred to the finding of a gun silencer with blood stains in a cupboard that had already been searched by three police officers who found nothing.
A new witness turned up who had a profound effect on the investigation and the outcome of the trial. Jeremy Bamber’s (very recently) ex- girlfriend, Julie Mugford, a 21 year old student teacher, came forward to say that her former boyfriend, Jeremy, had been planning the murders for over a year.
In her first statement to police Julie Mugford said that Jeremy had hired a hitman (a local plumber) to carry out the murders. When this man was interviewed and turned out to have a cast iron alibi, rather than dismiss Julie as a wholly unreliable witness, Essex Police let her have another go at making a different statement. When this didn’t suit their needs, she was given a third go at it. Not only that, but she was given immunity from prosecution over cheque fraud and drugs charges in return for her statement. These charges would have precluded her from becoming a teacher and which could quite easily have led to jail. In addition to these sweeteners, she was also offered £25,000 by the News of the World for her story – provided Jeremy was found guilty. That £25,000 would be worth £75,000 in today’s money.
At this stage Jeremy became the prime suspect. DCI ‘Taff’ Jones was replaced as leader of the Investigating team by Detective Superintendent Mike Ainsley and a junior detective sergeant Stan Jones. Senior Detective Mike Ainsley threw all his focus behind the Eaton and Boutflour family’s evidence. He would later go on to work for them as head of security in the family caravan park. He was their highest paid employee.
In September of 1985, Detective Stan Jones arrested Jeremy. He was held in custody for five days. On his release, Jeremy went to the South of France with a friend to escape the media attention. On his return from France he was arrested at Dover. He was charged and sent on remand to Norwich Prison.
In October 1986, Jeremy was arrested and brought before the Crown Court in Chelmsford in Essex with Judge Maurice Drake presiding. The two main prosecution assertions were Mugford’s testimony and the fact that Sheila could not have pulled the trigger of the gun on herself -if there was a silencer attached.
The verdict was a 10:2 majority and Jeremy was given a life sentence. The sentence was later changed to a whole life tariff by Home Secretary Douglas Hurd in 1988.
The gross Miscarriage of Justice was carried out by Essex Police in collusion with members of the extended Bamber family and the judiciary.
Jeremy Bamber from Essex has spent the last 40 years in jail for a crime he did not commit.
Further information about this case can be gleaned from the website https://www.jeremy-bamber.co.
uk/
Jeremy really had a trial by media . He was depicted as arrogant and greedy. Both which he is not. A category of lies upheld his conviction. Ge was outside with the Police when there was activity inside the farmhouse . All 4 bodies had rigamortis when found and must have died before 3am except Sheila’s blood was still flowing and there was a report that she had been lying on the kitchen floor, then to be found upstairs with trails going up the back staircase. Someone called 999 from inside the farmhouse ,an ambulance arrived . It could only have been Sheila still alive. Jeremy was totally stiched up for the greedy family to gain what they thought was theirs from the maternal grandmother. The family lied,the grandmother believed Jeremy had also died so changing her will. The family and the girlfriend (who went a month later to the Police after Jeremy had left her.)all lied for gain. Jeremy was discredited that he had murdered for gain. He was outside with the Police. He did not do it . This poor man needs releasing now before it’s too late. He is in his mid 60s. There was also a suicide note which wasn’t presented in court.