Aside from Zodiac, this is one of the cases I return to over and over again as there are so many questions and the tantalizing feeling that the answer is in the available evidence somewhere, just waiting for someone to pull it all together. This is definitely one of those cases that has enough information available for us amateurs to make a difference.
For those unfamiliar with the case, I recommend this documentary on youtube, it is probably the most comprehensive ‘quick guide’ available, although there is so much to go through no single site/program has it all:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDpM7W4OVck

To summarise the key facts of the case:
August 1985, Neville and June Bamber, their adopted daughter Sheila, and her two 7 year-old twins were found murdered in their farmhouse (all shot with the same rifle). Evidence suggested Sheila (who was a diagnosed Schizophrenic) had killed the others before turning the gun on herself.
Jeremy Bamber, son of Neville and June, and sole surviving immediate family member (who lived elsewhere at the time), was convicted of the murders and has now spent nearly 30 years in prison protesting his innocence. There were 4 main driving forces behind the jury’s decision of his guilt:
– he stood to inherit the farm and other associated businesses
– a silencer was found in a cupboard with evidence that suggested it was used in the killings (obviously impossible if Sheila had been the shooter).
– Bamber’s girlfriend testified that she had overheard him telling someone else about his plans to carry out suck an attack and that he would hire a hitman to do it.
– At the time of the attack (3am), Bamber claims he was called by his father who frantically explained that Sheila had gone crazy with the gun, before the line went dead. Bamber then called police, who met him at the farmhouse and waited for armed officers to arrive. The prosecution argued that it was obvious Neville Bamber would have called police, not Jeremy, if these events were unfolding as described.

20 Years later, once FOI kicked in and Bamber supporters could start getting access to key documents, the whole tone of the case changes.
– There is evidence of police errors and corruption. Firstly, there are 2 call logs at the local police station at the time of the murder. The notes are ambiguous but it seems clear that the station did indeed get 2 calls and one looks to have been from Neville (the note states ‘my daughter has a gun’). This evidence was never shown to the jury. Other police documents have been locked away under ‘Public interest Immunity’ laws, why on earth would that be the case? what are the police hiding?
– Bamber’s girlfriend gave 32 interviews to police and press before mentioning the hitman. Further to that, she was offered many thousands of pounds for her story exclusive to one tabloid newspaper – but only on a successful conviction of Bamber. Obviously there is no way she should have been allowed to testify with that kind of incentive to influence the trial.
– The question of inheritance is very interesting. Bamber would have been aware that he would inherit the farm if his parents and Sheila died, but what he did not know was that Neville Bamber had helped out his cousin a few years earlier by buying their farm as well. This was kept a secret to preserve the dignity of the relatives (the Eatons and the Boutflours). This is the kicker – if all of the Bambers were out of the picture, the Boutflours would inherit the Bamber estate and simultaneously wipe out their debt to Neville. Coincidence? Perhaps……until you find out that the police never found the rifle silencer – one of the Boutflours allegedly did a few weeks after the killing and ran to police with it, thus turning the case from suicide to murder in one move.
– The silencer has one more part to play in this that really shifts focus to the Boutflours. There was evidence of paint flecks on it that suggested that, during a struggle in the kitchen with Neville bamber, the rifle (with silencer attached) gouged a mark in the fireplace surround.
Sounds plausible….. until an eagle-eyed forensic officer noticed that the crime scene photos from the day of the crime show that there was no such gouge in the fireplace. Oh, and who pointed out the gouge to the police? The Boutflours.
I could go on about how bodies were moved, police thought someone else was still in the house while Bamber was outside, and other facts that really get the mind ticking but I encourage anyone interested in miscarriages of justice to dig deep into this one. My personal opinion is that the armed police bungled their invasion of the home and destroyed/manipulated evidence for whatever reason to cover themselves (there is a lot of this that I have not covered in this post) , and that is the primary reason for the Public Interest Immunity orders on certain documents. Therefore they will never re-open the case and we will never know if Jeremy Bamber is serving an unjust sentence.