The Jeremy Bamber files: three crucial questions about the White House Farm massacre
Exactly 40 years after Jeremy Bamber was convicted of murdering five members of his family at White House Farm, new forensic evidence challenges the safety of his conviction.
On 7 August 1985, five members of the Bamber family were shot dead at their farmhouse in Essex, England. This Wednesday marked exactly 40 years since Jeremy Bamber was convicted of the murders of his adoptive parents, his sister and her six-year-old twin boys. He was initially jailed for a minimum of 25 years, later upgraded to a whole-life sentence.
Bamber's case has been submitted three times to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates alleged miscarriages of justice. The CCRC referred the case once in 2001, but judges upheld the conviction. In 2012, it refused to refer the case back, and in 2021, it rejected four of 10 points Bamber raised.
The CCRC has faced criticism for its handling of the case, taking five years to examine just four points and seemingly avoiding investigation of evidence that could challenge the conviction. When Dame Vera Baird KC became interim chair last year, she said the commission "are quite often incompetent" and "look for reasons not to refer rather than to refer."
The silencer evidence
At Bamber's trial, the jury was presented with a binary choice: either Bamber killed his family, or Sheila Caffell killed her family and herself. The use of a silencer was central to the conviction. The prosecution claimed that with the silencer attached, Caffell's arms were too short to have shot herself, and that she couldn't have shot herself twice, then walked downstairs to replace the silencer before dying.
The prosecution alleged the silencer contained blood flakes belonging to Caffell. However, this blood only matched her blood grouping, which could have also belonged to her uncle Robert Boutflour, a prosecution witness who regularly used the guns. The jury was never told that one component of the blood analysis matched animals like rabbits, which were regularly shot on the farm.
On the evidence of the silencer alone you may find Mr Bamber guilty.
In 2012, Bamber's team commissioned American forensic expert Dr David Fowler, who concluded Caffell was shot without a silencer. The CCRC rejected this finding. Last year, The Guardian commissioned Prof Jason Payne-James to examine crime-scene photographs, who concluded the bullet injuries were caused by "contact or close-range shooting" without a silencer attached.
The pattern imprint on the skin is not large enough to suggest that a silencer was used, either at very close range or in contact with her body.
Police witness controversy
In 2024, investigative journalist Heidi Blake reported that former police officer Nicholas Milbank confirmed he received a 999 call from inside the farmhouse at 6.09am, when Bamber had been outside with police for two hours. This call would have cleared Bamber if someone was still alive inside.
Instead of interviewing Milbank itself, the CCRC allowed Essex Police to interview him. The force reported back that Milbank had never spoken to The New Yorker, and later informed the CCRC that Milbank had died. However, audio of Milbank's interview with Blake later emerged, confirming the 999 call.
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