Freedom of Information not so free: Jeremy Bamber

Here's something that's a little different; but nevertheless I hope you still find it interesting. Hopefully it's in the correct forum

Background
Jeremy Bamber was convicted of murdering members of his family in 1985:

Jeremy Nevill Bamber (born 13 January 1961) was convicted in England in 1986 of having murdered five members of his adoptive family—his father, mother, sister, and her six-year-old twin sons—at his parents' home at White House Farm, Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex, in the early hours of 7 August 1985. He was sentenced to five life terms with a recommendation that he serve at least 25 years, and in 1994 the Home Secretary ruled he must spend the rest of his life in jail. Bamber has protested his innocence over the years, believed to be the only prisoner in the UK serving a whole-life tariff to do so.

The police initially believed that Bamber's sister Sheila had murdered the family and then killed herself. She had psychiatric issues and had separated from her husband. Since the split, her sons had been living with her husband and were visiting her at her parents on that fatal night. However, following prompting by Bamber's two-timed ex-girlfriend and the fact that Bamber stood to inherit nearly £500,000, the police moved to him as a suspect.

Since his imprisonment, Bamber has sought appeal on numerous occasions. Leave to appeal was refused in 1989 and 1994. His case was referred to the Court of Appeal in 2002 by the Criminal Cases Review Commission due to DNA evidence being available. This was dismissed. In 2008 and 2009 he appealed against his whole-life tariff. Again, these were dismissed.

By now, you're probably wondering why I've posted this is on a Conspiracy forum. Before I get to that, I'd ask you to bear with me and first allow me to outline why I believe there's something wrong with this picture.

Detail
Jeremy's sister Sheila (who was one of those who died that night) had a history of mental illness and had previously been admitted to a mental hospital. Previously diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, she had previously demonstrated agitation with psychosis and continued to be treated with antipsychotics. Two years earlier she had told her psychiatrist her belief that the devil "had taken over her":

She was depressed in a paranoid way, struggling with the concept of good and evil and caught up with the idea that the Devil had taken her over and given her the power to project the Devil's evil to others including her twin sons.

Initially, the police believed that Sheila had conducted a murder-suicide:

According to all the first reports, Bamber's sister, Sheila - a model with psychiatric problems - had shot her six-year-old twin sons, her parents and then herself. The Mail's headline next day was: "Drugs probe after massacre by mother of twins."

Front Page

At 03:36, Police records show a call from Jeremy Bamber, stating: "You've got to help me. My father has rang me and said, 'Please come over. Your sister has gone crazy and has got the gun'. Unit Charlie Alpha 5 (CA5) was sent to the farmhouse. Call Log

Bamber arrived at the farm shortly after the Police. The Tactical Firearm Unit hung back, waiting until around 07:00 to storm the farm, upon which they found five bodies inside.

Anomalies
Apart from the compelling story of Sheila, there are numerous questions that arise with this picture.

Witheld Evidence
It took a 2004 court case to force the Police to share evidence resulted in the discovery that exhibit 29 (narrative of radio communications) was actually 24 pages long and not the 1 page, edited document, that had been provided.

On receiving the 24 pages, the defence immediately noticed that the first two pages had not only been re-written on different paper from the rest, but had been edited. A comparison with police witness statements revealed that several key radio messages that were made had been left out.

But this wasn't the only thing withheld:

The disclosure of the radio message log was not the only dramatic development last March. Bamber's defence had requested only one document. However, perhaps inadvertently, the police also provided evidence that had not been requested—pages from a contemporaneous telephone log and from a contemporaneous incident report. The defence had not known that either existed. It was immediately apparent that the two logs and the incident report that the police had withheld contained details that were entirely inconsistent with the case put by the prosecution at Bamber's trial.

Therefore, after nearly 19 years, the defence team discovered that there was a full radio log, a telephone log and an incident report, of which it had previously been unaware. Bamber's defence team has repeatedly asked for access to the following: the notebooks and other papers of Inspector Jones (headed the initial investigation & believed Bamber to be innocent), the audio recordings of all telephone and radio messages from White House farm, the audio recordings describing the scene of the crime, the video recordings of the scene of the crime, the original radio and telephone messages log and incident report. On every occasion on which the defence team has asked for them, Essex constabulary has refused to provide them - a fact raised by Andrew Hunter MP in the House of Commons.

Jeremy's father calls the Police
Missing call logs show that at 03:26 that morning, the Police had recieved a call from a Nevill Bamber (Jeremy's father). The call log records the statement "daughter gone beserk". Call Log

"Mr Bamber, White House Farm, Tolleshunt d’Arcy—daughter Sheila Bamber, aged 26 years, has got hold of one of my guns." "Mr Bamber has a collection of shotguns and .410s,"

Patrol Charlie Alpha 7 (CA7) had been sent to the scene at 3.35 am. The call log had not been shown to the Jury.

Movement in the house
PC Major's Incident Report at 03:45 reports seeing an 'Unidentified male' at this time. Similarly, the missing radio log shows that signs of persons in the house were noted:

05.25: Firearms team are in conversation with a person from inside the farm
05.29: From CA7 – Challenge to persons inside house met with no response

Shelia's Body
Photographs of Sheila's body show a body unaffected by rigor mortis, skin that isn't discoloured and blood that is not congealed. Considering the police photographer took his pictures around, Bamber's defence team have independently concluded that she could not have died more than 1.5 hours before - around the same time the police entered the farm and at a point where Bamber had been with the police for over 3 hours.

The prosecution case outlined how the police had found Nevill downstairs in the kitchen and the other four bodies upstairs. DI DI Millar’s pocketbook (annotated 09:30) notes the following scene on entering the master bedroom

“In same room far side of bed daughter with .22 rifle by her right side”

However, the missing evidence tells a different tale:

An entry in the radio message log, which the police withheld for nearly 19 years, reads: "0737: one dead male and one dead female in kitchen". The telephone message log, which the police withheld for nearly 19 years, records: "0738: one dead male and one dead female found on entry", and at 7.40 am, the incident log, again withheld by the police for nearly 19 years , records a message from a Detective Inspector "IR"—we know only his initials—which. said: "Police entered premises. One male dead, one female dead".

Other
There are multiple other anomalies, including evidential photographs and testing undertaken a month after the event, "appearing" and "moving" evidence and evidence that had been handled incorrectly (e.g. removing the rifle without gloves) etc.

So, where's the conspiracy?
My personal opinion is that Bamber is innocent. However, the purpose of this thread is not so much about his innocence vs guilt than about what's wrapped around his conviction.

Considering what we know, at the very least, Bamber is the victim of a startlingly inept investigation, pitiful case maintenance and communication, contradictory evidence and shockingly poor evidence archiving.

However, at the other end of the spectrum lay more sinister implications.

Covering up errors of Judgment

New analysis of police documents and fingerprint forms of officers who entered the Essex farm on the morning of the shootings – uncovered during an Observer/Guardian Films investigation – indicate that up to 17 officers from firearm support units attended the murder scene, hours after the killings for training purposes.

So we know that evidence was possibly disturbed and contaminated following the event - something particularly crucial considering that evidence was still being collected and photographed up to a month later.

Expert analysis of photographs taken in the aftermath of the shootings suggest bodies in the house may have been moved and the crime scene retouched

Is this why evidence was withheld and continues to be withheld? Why else would the police force in question hold back key information and edit what evidence was - and is - shared?

But is this just *another* one of these cases where "old school" officers "encourage" the evidence to "get their man"?

Bamber's defence team have requested the findings of the coroner who inquired into Inspector Jones' sudden death, which have never been made public. Why they want this detail regarding the man who led the investigation and believed Bamber to be innocent has not been shared. However, the nature of the request itself to me suggests they suspect foul play. Foul play about the death of a man who was adamant that Bamber was innocent.

Concealing actual events
Adding additional intrigue to an already complicated picture, an alternative scenario has been proposed by Journalist Bob Woffinden, who specialises in investigating miscarriages of justice. He has argued that:

Sheila killed her family, but was still alive and watching from an upstairs window as police gathered outside the house; this, he writes, would explain why police thought they saw someone inside. At some point she went downstairs to the kitchen where her father lay dead, and shot herself once, intending to take her own life. The shot was not fatal, but she did lose consciousness. The police looked through the kitchen window and saw two bodies in the kitchen, thinking her dead. As they broke down the back door, she regained consciousness, and slipped upstairs using one of the back staircases. One of the officers said when he entered the house that he heard a sound upstairs, and shouted to Sheila, assuming it was her. Woffinden argued that, hearing this, Sheila went into her mother's bedroom and shot herself a second time, this time fatally. Because the muzzle was pressed again her skin, Woffinden wrote that it may have muffled the sound enough to explain why none of the officers heard the shot.

The evidence that's on the table supports this as a plausible sequence of events. We know that Sheila had died relatively recently - the photographs support this. Similarly, the withheld radio messages record a discrepancy between her body being found in the kitchen rather than the later claim she was found in the bedroom.

Yet again, the evidence highlighting this was withheld by the police force in question. But why? To get their man? To hide a mismanaged scene of crime? Because she killed herself when they were actually there?

In Conclusion
In my personal opinion, this case is not simply one of those cases where one can point "travesty of justice" or highlight it as one that's been affected by an inept or corrupt police investigation.

The evidence clearly shows that from the start - until this day - the police force in question have hidden, destroyed, tainted and amended evidence. A Member of Parliament has highlighted it in the House of Commons and yet the police continue in the same vein:

On receiving the 24 pages, the defence immediately noticed that the first two pages had not only been re-written on different paper from the rest, but had been edited. A comparison with police witness statements revealed that several key radio messages that were made had been left out. Why? The defence therefore asked for the original document so that it could be sent for electrostatic document analysis testing, but Essex constabulary refused. The request has been repeated many times, and on each occasion the constabulary has refused.

I'm sure you're like me, suspecting that this type of thing probably happens more than we'd like it to. However, to realise that it can happen to such a degree, in such plain sight and with such blatancy is unnerving to say the least. And the fact it continues despite such publicity is startling.

I've not done justice to the facts underpinning these concerns and issues, so if I have piqued your interest I'd encourage you to take a look at the links below. I'd be more than grateful if you'd help me add some colour to the outline I've provided above

References
Guardian: Jeremy Bamber
England and Wales Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) Decisions
Innocent
Official Website
Jeremy Bamber Campaign
Dr Gillingham's Report
PS Adams - Interview Notes
Wiki
Is Bambi's killer innocent?
Mass killer Bamber 'passes lie detector'
TRIAL AND ERROR: THE CASE OF JEREMY BAMBER
Radio Call Log
Wireless Message Log

very difficult for me to read this because I kept thinking about justin beber and how much I hate the entertainment in America,

Wow it looks like there is good reason to suspect a miscarriage of justice here! I wonder how high it actually goes?