Jeremy Bamber
Twenty two years ago, during Operation Stokenchurch, the Metropolitan Police[1] (MP) discovered items of evidence that indicated that Jeremy Bamber was innocent. One indication arose when DS Stan Jones of Essex Police revealed in conversation that Sheila Caffell[2] left a suicide note[3] that indicated that she had killed her family before taking her own life.
A second occurrence discovered by the MP relates to a 999 call made from White House Farm at 6.09am.
In December 2015, a previously unseen document was discovered amongst the thousands of case papers, which detailed that a 999 call was made from within White House Farm. This document was belatedly disclosed to the Defence with many thousands of others after the 2002 appeal. It came into existence as a result of the 2002 Metropolitan Police investigation ‘Stokenchurch’ carried out for the Crown. The document reveals that a 999-phone call was made from inside the farm at 6.09am while Jeremy Bamber was outside with the police. The only conceivable caller is Sheila Caffell who was described in a police log as being “in conversation” with the Firearms officers. [4]
The evidence of the 999 call’s existence is found on a High Priority Action Record Print 343 from the 2002 Stokenchurch Enquiry. The use of the telephone was investigated in relation to Appeal Ground 12, which was that police officers had used the telephone inside White House Farm at some point that morning to call out: The Action record states[5]:
“Research Stokenchurch for any documents by MILLBANK (sic) N347 re 999 call.” And then: “Research Stokenchurch for all documentation, including statements, notes, messages and documents that refer to PC MILLBANK N347 monitoring the 999 call made from White House Farm at 06:09 on 07/08/85, and supply copies of the same into the system” (my emphases).
The incident log created by civilian Malcolm Bonnett at the Essex Police HQ Information Room contains an entry made at 06:09 and states[6]:
“Open ‘999’ line set up (direct link to house with phone off hook).”
The entry at 07:47 states:
“Close down ‘999’ open line.”
No statement was made pre-trial by PC347 Milbank, nor was he asked to give evidence in court about what he heard whilst he monitored the 999-call made from within White House Farm. Did Essex Police deliberately hide from the Defence the existence of PC Nicholas Milbank. No other documentation has ever been disclosed which states Milbank was involved in the case.
Milbank’s statement dated 18th July 2002 consists of a single paragraph: [7]
“As far as I can recall I heard nothing for a while until I heard movement and voices which indicated police officers had entered.[8]”
PC Milbank monitored the line for a total of one hour and twenty-five minutes. In his statement he does not say how he knew the movement and voices he heard were those of police officers and does not give us the time he heard it.
It is unknown how Operation Stokenchurch uncovered the existence of PC Milbank. It can only be assumed further documentation exists which as yet remains hidden from the Defence. Milbank allegedly informed the Metropolitan Police in 2002:[9]
“I wouldn’t have thought there would be any records to confirm these events. This is the first time I have been asked about this incident.”
However, an article published by The New Yorker magazine on 29 July 2024 contains new information from PC Nicholas Milbank (seemingly still employed by Essex Police according to the article). Milbank told the magazine that he had never made a witness statement in relation to monitoring the 999 telephone line connection to WHF. So, who created the witness statement in his name dated 18th July 2002, which is not signed by Milbank?
Milbank is quoted as saying,:
“From what I can remember someone called 999 from inside the farmhouse.”
He recalled hearing muffled speech and noises that could have been a door opening and closing, or a chair being moved. When asked if this meant that someone was alive in the house Milbank responded:
“Well, obviously”.
With those few words to a journalist the entire case against Jeremy Bamber collapses.
Milbank's statement suggests that Sheila Caffell, as long suspected, was alive at 06:09, the sole survivor of the massacre. The suicide note mentioned by DS Stan Jones was real - although it has never been seen, Jones’ revelation about the note has been confirmed by the Metropolitan Police and by Essex Police.
Jeremy Bamber was standing outside the farmhouse surrounded by police officers at 06:09; he could not possibly have killed Sheila Caffell. Additionally, one can deduce that the blood said to have been found inside the silencer was likely to have been planted (see) and that throughout the trial in October 1986 numerous witnesses gave erroneous evidence. Was the entire Prosecution case a work of fiction cooked up by former Acting Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Ainsley?
Where does the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) stand in relation to these revelations about the 999 call? As usual, they are culpable for not investigating the issue. Hostility towards Bamber emanates from every aspect of documentation issued to him from the CCRC; dismissiveness of his claims is their standard response. However, there is a good reason for this. The CCRC has employed former police officers to oversee every aspect of Bamber submissions! It seems that nobody employed by the CCRC over the past 25 years has considered what drives a man to protest his innocence for 40 years. It takes enormous stamina and resilience on behalf of Jeremy Bamber to continue to insist that he is innocent. A guilty person would have given up years ago in the hope of parole.
We learnt recently from Jeremy Bamber that his submissions to the CCRC have been scrutinized, vetted, and rejected by serving police officers on two separate occasions over the past twenty years. His current submission is being overseen by a former police officer with a vested interest in the outcome[10]. The CCRC have been in receipt of Bamber’s most recent submission since March 2021. They are said to have rejected three of ten points of contention made to them in the submission. Now that Milbank has revealed that a 999 telephone call was made at 06:09, those three points already rejected must be reconsidered in light of the new evidence because the points are almost certainly correct. Indeed, the CCRC should now assume that all ten grounds submitted by Bamber are valid.
The CCRC needs to recognise that Jeremy Bamber is innocent and act with an urgency to secure his release. His continuing imprisonment is even more scandalous than the appalling failure of the CCRC to secure the freedom of Andrew Malkinson (see).
Yet, the CCRC seems to have learnt nothing from the Malkinson debacle. Rather than act with honest intent to uncover wrongdoing in the legal system that wrongfully jailed Bamber, the CCRC desktop analysts continue to try to find clever legal arguments to support the Court of Appeal in rejecting Bamber’s case.
To a large extent that is because the English legal system admits to no mistakes. As Dr Michael Naughton says in a forthcoming book::
"A major stumbling block for alleged innocent victims of wrongful convictions is the rationale of the criminal justice system, which sees criminal trials as a singular and one-time only affair where the prosecution and defence should include all that is relevant to the alleged offence and there is nether the time nor the money to keep rehearing cases just because those convicted do not agree with the outcome. Strict legal doctrines have been created to support and entrench this approach, such as the doctrine of ‘finality’, meaning that defendants can only have ‘one bite of the cherry’, and the notion of ‘jury deference’, meaning that what the jury decides is final and treated as sacrosanct, notwithstanding the possibility (and reality) that juries can get it wrong and that innocent victims can be, and are, wrongly convicted in criminal trials”.
The simple fact is that Jeremy Bamber is innocent; Nicholas Milbank has confirmed this. The CCRC needs to expedite an investigation into what Milbank knows about the 999 call and get the facts before the Court of Appeal (CoA) immediately after facilitating the release on bail of Jeremy Bamber.
It is the least that they can do after 30 years of ham-fisted bumbling around assisted by ex-coppers who only had an interest in covering up the truth.
By Bill Robertson
Bill Robertson has researched alleged miscarriages of justice for around 20 years and advised on several cases, including the most recent application to the CCRC by Jeremy Bamber.
Please let us know if you think that there is a mistake in this article, explaining what you think is wrong and why. We will correct any errors as soon as possible.
References
[1] DCI Jeanette McDiarmid and DI Paul Brown.
[2] Adoptive daughter of victims June and Nevill Bamber and mother of the twins also killed, Nicholas and Daniel Caffell.
[3] When the mayhem ended inside WHF Sheila Caffell wrote a suicide note explaining that she had killed her family and she intended to kill herself. This fact is acknowledged by both Essex Police and the Metropolitan Police and is recorded in writing and on cassette tape. During the Metropolitan Police Stokenchurch enquiry, on 6th August 2002, retired DS21 Stan Jones was interviewed by DCI Jeanette McDiarmid and DI Paul Brown. This was in relation to the kitchen telephone at White House Farm. During the discussion, he said:
Jones: “What you've got to remember is, it wasn't five murders it was four murders and a suicide, which throws a completely different picture on it. Because things wouldn’t be treated the same as a murder scene.
McDiarmid: Yes.
Jones: “You don't go hunting for things if you've got four murders and a suicide if you've got someone saying I’ve just killed myself you don't start searching cupboards upstairs, you don't start searching cupboards in the other rooms, because you've got a note saying I've killed myself, so it was treated as four murders and a suicide, completely different.
[4] Full Radio Log. Page 6 entry timed at 06:26.
[5] Stokenchurch Action Record Prints re Millbank and Disclosure. Action 343
[6]Full Radio Log. Page 4 entry timed at 06:09.
[7] Pc Millbank - (18.08.02)
[8] This falsehood appears to be a case of trying to suggest that what Milbank heard occurred after police broke into the farm at 07:30 whereas Milbank has now revealed that he heard these noises just after 06:09
[9] Pc Millbank - (18.08.02)
[10] For many years ex-detective Ralph Barrington, formerly Head of CID at Essex Police was employed by the CCRC and astonishingly he controlled the investigations into submissions made by Jeremy Bamber.
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