originally by: The Guardian
11th February 2011

Jeremy Bamber, whose convictions for murdering five of his relatives more than 25 years ago will not be referred to the court of appeal. Jeremy Bamber, who has spent 24 years in jail convicted of murdering five members of his family, a crime he has always denied, has lost his latest attempt to prove his innocence.

A panel from the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) ruled it would not refer Bamber’s case back to the court of appeal. His lawyers plan to appeal. It was a bitter blow for Bamber, now 50, and his supporters, who believed they had uncovered new evidence that showed flaws in the crown’s case.

In January last year Bamber’s legal team submitted a lengthy dossier to the CCRC including a report from a photographic expert, which claimed that scratch marks allegedly made by a silencer attached to the rifle used to kill the family were made weeks after the deaths, contrary to evidence presented to the jury.

The dossier argues that Bamber’s sister, Sheila, had killed their adoptive mother and father and her six-year old twin boys, before shooting herself. Bamber told a member of his campaign team, who passed the comments on to the Guardian, that he was “totally stunned”.

He said: “I will study the reasons the CCRC have given for not referring and will be speaking to my lawyer with a view to mounting a legal challenge to their decision. We have given the CCRC a mountain of evidence pointing to my innocence and they have rejected it.

Read full article >