Forensic analysis fund for Jeremy Bamber
Forensic analysis fund for Jeremy Bamber
Latest: Oct. 28, 2016
30th Anniversary of Jeremy's Wrongful Conviction
Today is the 28th October, a sad day for justice in the UK.
On this day 30 years ago Jeremy was wrongly convicted at Chelmsford Crown Court by a majority verdict of 10-2, by a jury that sadly co…
Read moreMy name is Trudi Benjamin and I am the Director of the Jeremy Bamber Campaign, a not-for-profit organisation set up for the dual aims of keeping Jeremy's case in the public arena and raising funds towards a new appeal. Myself and the campaign management team, together with a growing number of supporters all across the world are determined to do everything in our power to see justice done for Jeremy.
We are raising funds in order to secure a historic third appeal for Jeremy Bamber using the latest forensic advancements.
We have set a target of £4,000 which will go someway to getting preliminary reports secured in a couple of specific forensic areas detailed below.
Without the money it might be impossible to secure a further appeal for Jeremy and he will remain as a victim of one of biggest miscarriages of justice to happen in the UK.
The White House Farm Murders
In October 1986, Jeremy Bamber was found guilty of murder by a 10-2 majority verdict for shooting five members of his family. He has steadfastly maintained innocence for 31 years, even passing a lie detector test but remains in prison despite two appeals the first in 1988 and the second in 2002. Jeremy was given a 25 year sentence at trial, which was subsequently changed in 1988 to a Whole Life Tariff both retrospectively and in secret by the Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd. As the law stands at present Jeremy has no possibility of release.
Jeremy's Case
In 2011 the campaign team came into possession of case documents that had been gathered by the Metropolitan Police who had acted for the Crown in preparation for the 2002 Appeal. This was known as the 'Stokenchurch' investigation. Over the last five years Jeremy and his team have been able to systemically gather information from these documents that seriously undermines evidence presented at trial, two appeals and subsequent Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) applications between 2004 and 2012.
On arrival at White House Farm in the early hours of the 7th August 1985 in the company of Jeremy Bamber, the police discovered that the external doors were locked and bolted from the inside of the house. During the trial in 1986 the Jury was told that Jeremy had climbed out of the kitchen window after killing the family and that he knew how to secure it from the outside. DC Barlow (not a forensics officer) had carried out a number of tests in late August 1985 climbing in and out of the window to see if he could close both the vertical and horizontal catches from the outside. He informed the jury that he was able to bang the window frame from the outside to make the vertical catch fall but it would not close to the 6 o'clock position.
The illustration below shows the position of both vertical and horizontal catches as discussed:
To support Barlow's findings the jury were shown a photograph of the window taken on the morning of the tragedies. This photograph, seen below, was taken at an angle, a misleading perspective because the catch appears at the 7 o'clock position as though it had not been fully deployed.
However, after the additional disclosure of high-resolution images in 2011, the Campaign Team discovered the following photograph, which tells a very different story. This photograph was taken head on in front of the same window and shows the vertical catch fully deployed.
DC Barlow also told the court that the horizontal catch could not be deployed back on its pegs after he had climbed out of the window behind him. This issue was skimmed over and the jury did not see any photographs of the horizontal catch at trial.
Further supporting the defence contention that the window catch was fully deployed when the police arrived at the scene on the 7th August 1985 was a report sent from DI Ainsley to the Director of Public Prosecutions on 7th of November 1985. "As stated, there was no apparent entry to or exit from the house and D/Chief Inspector Jones did in fact examine the inside of all ground floor windows and noted that they were all shut and secured on their latches." However, the jury were told that the windows were all closed but not that they were secured. This issue is important because if the catches could not be fully deployed from the outside of the house but were found to be "secure on their latches" by the police at the scene, then they can only have been secured from within the house. The prosecution argument that Jeremy used this window to exit the scene is based on false evidence.
How will forensic work help this specific issue?
The sequence of negatives needs to be fully confirmed by a photographic expert and confirmation of the date and time the photographs were taken has to be verified. This issue will contribute to making up a corpus of material which defeats the prosecutions case at trial. Other evidence supporting Jeremy's innocence includes police logs relating to his alibi and a potential suicide note from Sheila Caffell.
What else does the campaign need funding for?
Historic cases of miscarriages of justice cases highlight how advances in forensic science can reveal vital new previously unexplored avenues. From the documents received by the Campaign Team a number of serious issues have recently come to light regarding the original forensic examinations but lack of funding has stalled investigations. Experts, using the latest techniques in forensic science are needed to assess the new evidence. Blood pattern analysis and ballistics experts are required to report on the deceased's injuries. Because we have specific areas for investigation, none of these issues could be considered speculative in nature. Nevertheless, the CCRC require reports from experts in the field before they will consider re-opening Jeremy's case. New forensic reports will secure the release of undisclosed material and also the freedom of Jeremy Bamber.
Why donate now?
The launch of this initiative on 29th September is of particular significance as it is exactly 31 years since Jeremy was arrested and charged. Jeremy has not seen freedom since that day. The fund will run until 28th October, the day 30 years ago that Jeremy was found guilty by a 10-2 majority verdict. Please give generously and help Jeremy achieve the freedom he deserves.
How much do we need?
We have set a target of £4,000 which will go someway to getting preliminary reports secured in a couple of specific forensic areas including the window catch issue. Without the money it might be impossible to secure a further appeal for Jeremy and he will remain as a victim of one of biggest miscarriages of justice to happen in the UK.
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JB Campaign Ltd
Oct. 28, 2016
30th Anniversary of Jeremy's Wrongful Conviction
Today is the 28th October, a sad day for justice in the UK.
On this day 30 years ago Jeremy was wrongly convicted at Chelmsford Crown Court by a majority verdict of 10-2, by a jury that sadly could not have known they were only hearing a fraction of the evidence.
Jeremy's latest blog looks back at his time on remand, the problems of literacy in prisons and the part Jeremy plays in trying to help prisoners learn to read and write. You can read the blog here:
http://jeremybamber.blogspot.gr/2016/10/on-30th-anniversary-of-jeremys.html
Today also marks the last full day of our CrowdJustice page (the page will close at 6pm on Saturday 29th October). We have raised £4,220 in the last 29 days already £220 over our target. There is still time to donate so please do so as soon as possible.
In 2017 a Criminal Cases Review Commission application will be opened using the evidence from forensic scientists paid for with public donations. This will make a massive difference in obtaining disclosure and proving Jeremy's innocence. Donations from this page and funds donated via paypal and into our bank account bring us ever closer to achieving the estimated £10,000 target needed to pay for "at cost" forensics. I will be making a full announcement before Christmas on the total amount raised in our first year as a limited company.
Please share this page on your social media. Statistics show that the majority of donations come through direct contact via social media. Please use the hashtag #BamberAid.
Thank you for all your continuing support.
Trudi & The Campaign Team
JB Campaign Ltd
Oct. 20, 2016
Let's keep going!
A huge thank you to everyone who donated to help us get to our first £4,000 target.
We are now into our stretch amount and we only have 8 days left to make it count. Getting to £10,000 would be an incredible achievement and enable us to start work on a whole host of forensic analysis needs.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) can, where necessary, arrange for new expert evidence such as psychological reports and DNA testing. However, in reality this does not include any speculative testing and would only be done where they are sure it would assist an investigation. In order for a case to be referred back to The Court of Appeal, the CCRC has to be satisfied that there is a 'real possibility' that the court would quash the conviction. This benchmark is exceptionally high, particularly for historic cases such as Jeremy Bamber.
You may remember that I recently attended the United Against Injustice Conference. Whilst there I sat and listened to the CCRC Commissioners speaking about how their budget had been slashed from £10 million to £5 million. I am sure you will agree this is a sad state of affairs given the continuing need for investigations into miscarriages of justice such as Jeremy's and the lack of legal aid to do so.
Please, if you haven't donated yet, dig deep and help us raise as much money as possible. Without the funds it might be impossible to get the forensic testing done which we know will get Jeremy back into the Court of Appeal.
Please share with your family, friends and colleagues the importance of this case and use the hashtag #BamberAid on social media.
We can't do it without you.
Thank you very much.
Trudi & The Campaign Team
JB Campaign Ltd
Oct. 17, 2016
Funded
JB Campaign Ltd
Oct. 14, 2016
See how important it is to help with this issue
A recent letter from Jeremy about the window issue:
JB Campaign Ltd
Oct. 11, 2016
Update
Help us meet the allotted time slot for forensic work at cost.
On Saturday, my Campaign colleague Yvonne and I travelled to Liverpool for the United Against Injustice (UAI) conference. It was a jam-packed day of workshops and guest speakers, including our Patrons Michelle Diskin-Bates and Michael O’Brien. We came away inspired and invigorated in our continued fight for justice for Jeremy.
At the UAI conference it became clear that it is very hard for those maintaining innocence to find evidence to help them owing to non-disclosure, and when they do get the opportunity to use evidence they need money to help them pay for forensic work because there is no legal aid. Remember that the prosecution legal and forensics teams are paid 'top dollar' by the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure the scales of justice are tipped heavily towards the prosecution. Those charged or trying to overturn a conviction often rely on self-representation (litigant in person), pro-bono work of lawyers and at cost work from forensic companies. Free expertise is increasingly hard to find - for example: Can you afford to work for free? Some forensic scientists have offered us a compromise, which is work carried out at cost.
We need your help to redress this balance and remember the following points when considering a donation:
- To make our total of £4,000, £131 per day is now needed. That doesn’t sound like much and very easy to do if two or three people or more are donating each day.
- To get the report written on the windows we need to raise this money urgently as we do not have enough for the report yet! We have been offered this work at cost and forensic scientists have given us an allotted time in which to do it. If we don’t raise the money for this slot we will might have to pay full price or wait another 6 months for a time when they can do it around their other work and commitments.
- Jeremy needs the windows report to go into submissions to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) in the New Year so the work has to be done now!
- We also need to commission reports on several more vital forensic issues by the New Year.
As I have stated previously, we are determined to leave no stone unturned and no avenue unexplored in our quest to get Jeremy’s conviction over turned. The strong message that I took away from the conference, was that we all need to work together to ensure that miscarriages of justice are over turned in a timely manner. Jeremy has lost 31 years of his life and we cannot allow that to continue.
Please donate as soon as possible.
Thank you very much.
Trudi Benjamin & The Campaign Team
JB Campaign Ltd
Oct. 7, 2016
Update
Firstly thank you to all who have pledged so far.
It's been very a busy week for the Campaign Team and our efforts have yielded 37% raised.
On Tuesday evening myself and JB Campaign Ltd Patron, Michael O'Brien appeared on the live Racanteurs News podcast. Michael is a victim of a miscarriage of justice himself and served time in HMP Long Lartin with Jeremy. Michael talked about his own experiences and why public support for Jeremy's campaign is so important.
You can catch up with the podcast here:
https://raconteursnews.com/podcasts/
Our CrowdJustice Page also made the Essex Daily Gazette:
http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/14781132.Fundraising_campaigns_launched_to_overturn_Jeremy_Bamber_s_mass_murder_convictions/
Please tell your friends, family and colleagues how important Jeremy's case is to the wider public. This could happen to any of us and without vital funding to pay for forensic analysis work it may be impossible to get Jeremy back into the Court of Appeal.
We can't do this without you.
Thank you very much
Trudi
JB Campaign Ltd
Oct. 3, 2016
Video launching our CrowdJustice initiative
To launch our Crowd Justice initiative a new JB Campaign Ltd Vlog is available on our YouTube channel OfficialBamberVideo.
The 29th September, 1985 was the day 31 years ago that Jeremy was arrested and charged and he has not experienced a day of freedom since that date. The 28th October, 1986 was the day that Jeremy was found guilty by a 10-2 majority verdict 30 years ago. The fund raising initiative will run for the 30 days between these two dates. Dates that changed Jeremy's life forever!
My hope is that through fundraising, together we can create a new significant life altering date for Jeremy.... the day we see Jeremy walk free from the Court of Appeal.
Please watch the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=13&v=5uLQeUvgLuo
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