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Justice For Jeremy Bamber – Could A Chance Of Such Be Back On The Pitch?

Matthew Steeples Matthew Steeples
Justice For Jeremy Bamber – Could A Chance Of Such Be Back On The Pitch?

Matthew Steeples exclusively speaks to the Jeremy Bamber Innocence Campaign as they call for the whole-life tariff prisoner’s case to finally be reviewed by the Court of Appeal in the wake of the hapless and hopeless Criminal Cases Review Commission being shockingly shaken by scandal-upon-scandal after the departure of Helen Pitcher

Last week, in two separate articles, The Guardian’s senior crime and legal affairs reporter Emily Dugan shockingly shared: “For the wrongfully convicted, watching the years disappear from a prison cell, the miscarriage of justice watchdog represents their final hope. But some staff at the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) say its leaders appear divorced from that reality, using public money for executive training retreats in France and networking over fine wine and steak.”

 

In the wake of this statutory body responsible for investigating miscarriages of justice in England, Wales and Northern Ireland’s chairwoman, Helen Pitcher KC OBE, resigning after “an independent panel decided she was no longer fit to stay in the post,” have come yet further revelations about trouble-and-strife at the CCRC. Pitcher had been forced to vamoose after the scandal of “the case of Andrew Malkinson, who spent who spent 17 years in jail for a 2003 rape he did not commit after the CCRC missed multiple opportunities to help.”

 

Aside from Pitcher being slammed for conducting “Teams meetings from the balcony of her villa in the sunshine Montenegro” and boasting “about her jetset life,” the still remaining in post chief executive, Karen Kneller, has since been nicknamed ‘Karen Invisible’ by staff. Of her, Emily Dugan observed: “She is described by some of those working for her as ‘absent,’ with her ‘finger off the pulse.’”

 

“One staff member said that under Pitcher and Kneller, an ‘us-and-them culture’ had been allowed to grow within the organisation, with commissioners – the arbiters of cases – staying at top hotels when staff were summoned to Birmingham for meetings, while others stayed at budget accommodation.”

 

“Fine wines, lobster dishes and post-dinner brandies featured while Pitcher held court at top restaurants with commissioners at their twice-yearly meetings. One source recalled: ‘It was The Ivy; it was never McDonald’s. It was always the posh restaurant.’”

 

Separately, in an article for the Romford Recorder last week also, the paper’s investigations reporter Charles Thomson reported on “the family of an East End man [named Jason Moore] challenging a murder conviction” calling “for urgent extra funding at Britain’s miscarriage of justice watchdog.”

 

Thomson observed: “A Newsquest legal action revealed investigators at the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) are juggling dozens of cases each. The average caseworker at the CCRC is trying to manage 23 simultaneous cases, rising to 25 if trainees, new starters and leavers are excluded… The highest number of cases allocated to a single worker in January this year was 45. With annual leave, that worker would have just one week per year to spend on each potential miscarriage of justice assigned to them – not accounting for any ‘additional responsibilities.’”

 

Now, aside from Pitcher having been expelled and Kneller clearly on the ropes, it seems that this – the only body that can reinvestigate miscarriages of justice to send them to the Court of Appeal – is going to be rocked by further revelations.

 

On Sunday 9th February, Scott Jones and Glen Owen for The Mail on Sunday shared that “Jeremy Bamber’s 40-year bid to prove he is innocent of the White House Farm murders will come to a head next month when the under-fire Criminal Cases Review Commission decides whether to refer the case to the Court of Appeal.”

 

Journalist Emily Dugan recently tweeted sharing her article and remarked on the CCRC’s chief being dubbed ‘Karen Invisible’ by staff at the hapless and hopeless organisation.
Responding to ‘The Mail on Sunday’ article about the CCRC likely reviewing Jeremy Bamber’s case next month, one person who left a comment, ‘SloaneRanger’, observed: “Isn’t it curious that the as much use as a chocolate teapot Criminal Cases Review Commission is now getting so ‘busy’ revisiting cases finally now that they’ve had the disgrace of their handling of the Andrew Malkinson case and subsequently the forced resignation of their chairwoman Helen Pitcher OBE? This useless organisation has sat on the evidence presented to them by the Jeremy Bamber Innocence Campaign in recent years for far too long. Whether you believe Jeremy Bamber to be innocent or guilty, the evidence gathered, at the very least, illustrates the incompetence of Essex Police and proves that this case must be revisited.”

In a letter to the lawyer for Bamber – who is the only whole-life prisoner in a British jail to continue to claim to be innocent, but whom was convicted of the 1985 murders of his adoptive parents, his adoptive sister and her twin sons in 1986 – that was “seen by The Mail on Sunday,” a CCRC case review manager stated:

 

“I am still aiming to bring Mr Bamber’s case before a decision-making committee around March to consider the core issues. I am continuing to consider Mr Bamber’s submissions, in particular those relating to the number of sound moderators (gun silencers) recovered from White House Farm and the forensic findings from it/them.”

 

Responding, a spokesperson for the Jeremy Bamber Innocence Campaign (JBIC) today told The Steeple Times that they are finally anticipating action to resolve the clear previous lack of it in the CCRC’s handling of evidence submitted. They exclusively commented:

 

“Nearly four years ago the CCRC were presented with a cast-iron alibi for Jeremy Bamber in the shape of a 999 call being made from within White House Farm at 6.09 am on the morning of the shootings. This showed that Sheila Caffell was still alive inside the house when Jeremy was standing outside surrounded by police officers.”

 

“In July 2024, this alibi was corroborated by the police officer who took the call, PC Nicholas Milbank, in an interview with The New Yorker magazine. He confirmed that he did take a 999 call from White House Farm at that time.”

 

“He also said that he had no knowledge of the typed, unsigned, statement, supposedly written by him, that Essex Police used before Jeremy’s 2002 Appeal to explain away the police records of the 999 call as a ‘misunderstanding.’ Mr Milbank said that he had never written such a statement.”

 

“In light of these facts, it is utterly extraordinary that the CCRC have, as far as we are aware, made no attempt to contact Mr Milbank directly to confirm what he said to The New Yorker.”

 

“During the years since Jeremy’s latest submissions were lodged with the CCRC, in March 2021, they have done nothing apart from a cursory desktop review of the prosecution case. The CCRC have not investigated any aspect of the considerable amount of exculpatory evidence they have been shown, such as the fact that the police lied about there only being one moderator involved in the case.”

 

“Jeremy has served 10% of his current 40-year-term whilst the mass of evidence that proves his innocence has been gathering dust on the shelves of the CCRC.”

 

“We can only hope that the further evidence of two moderators being involved in the case that was given to the CCRC in November 2024, thereby disproving the central plank of the Crown case that here was only one, will finally prompt the CCRC to refer the case back to the Court of Appeal very soon.”

 

To learn more about the Jeremy Bamber Innocence Campaign, click here.

 

To read Heidi Blake’s 17,000-word August 2024 ‘The New Yorker’ article about Jeremy Bamber’s case, ‘A Very English Murder,’ in PDF format, click here.

 

Editor’s note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples and watch his shows on YouTube at @mjs2781/streams.

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Some questions Essex Police and the Criminal Cases Review Commission plainly need to answer regarding this case… Including some new ones that could lead to to the exoneration of jailed for nigh on 40 years and still protesting his innocence Jeremy Bamber…

The scene of the murders during the night of 6th and 7th August 1985: White House Farm, Pages Lane, Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Maldon, Essex, CM9 8AA.
Jeremy Bamber’s adoptive parents, Ralph and June Bamber, and the grave where they are buried. Could he finally be exonerated of their killings in 2025?
In November 2022, Phillip Boyce – who has worked on high profile investigations as a forensic scientist for over 30 years –claimed that Essex Police could have “changed the evidence” in the case by moving the body of Nevill Bamber before official photographs of the scene were taken. If true, the three burn marks on Mr Bamber’s back would not have been inflicted by the hot end of a rifle but instead by his dead body being left lying against the AGA and its hot handles instead causing the burns. In photographs taken by police, shown to the trial jury at Chelmsford Crown Court in 1986, Nevill Bamber was instead seen slumped over an overturned chair in the kitchen.
One of the bedrooms at the farm; a truly horrific scene that will go down in history as a murder most horrid. If it is proven that Jeremy Bamber was NOT the killer, this case will also go down in history as one of Britain’s worst miscarriages of justice.
In April 2020, ‘The Steeple Times’ reported that “further questions about the conduct of Essex Police [were] raised as it [was] revealed they destroyed the bible, nightclothes and pillows that were found with the victims at White House Farm on the night of the 1985 murders. The 20th March 2000 letter from the Criminal Cases Review Commission to Glaisyers Solicitors LLP and Sheila Caffell is truly a shocking example of a bungling balls-up.
The clearly left open bible next to the body of Sheila Caffell was photographed by Essex Police, but was then not submitted as evidence and destroyed. A supposed suicide note also disappeared and countless other evidence was clearly tampered with. “What motivation did those processing the scene have to do this?” is a question that Essex Police and prosecutors have repeatedly failed to answer.
Veteran human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, a longtime supporter of Jeremy Bamber, tweeted about the case on 7th March 2021. He remarked: “Is this [the] greatest miscarriage of justice?” and previously in 2017, he wrote to the then chief constable of Essex Police, Stephen Kavanagh, to highlight the “grave injustice” of the force’s withholding and destroying evidence with regard to the White House Farm murders.
Jeremy Bamber’s legal team have alleged that the senior investigating officer in the case, Michael Ainsley, took documents relating to the case to his home in 2010 and destroyed them in spite of “knowing there was an active appeal underway.” Surely, now, it is time for a reinvestigation of this case at the very least if faith in the British justice system is to be retained.

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