The legal team of Jeremy Bamber, who has served 41 years in prison for murdering five members of his family, has challenged Wakefield prison’s decision to ban him from talking about his case to the media and long-term supporters. His lawyers have issued a claim for judicial review against the secretary of state for justice and the governor of the category A high-security prison, arguing that it is violating his right to free speech and obstructing his access to justice. Bamber, aged 65, was convicted of murdering his adoptive parents, Nevill and June Bamber, his adoptive sister, Sheila Caffell, and her six-year-old twin sons, Daniel and Nicholas.
He has always protested his innocence. Earlier this year, the prison banned him from writing to and phoning journalists and members of his campaign team. Although the wholesale ban on communication has been eased, letters and emails discussing any aspect of his case are not being forwarded, and Bamber is still unable to communicate with journalists and the campaign team by phone.
Without giving a specific explanation for the decision in Bamber’s case, the Prison Service cited “the need to protect victims from serious distress and maintain confidence in the justice system” as the basis for such restrictions in general. Initial newspaper reports of the 1985 massacre at White House Farm in Essex, England, called it a murder-suicide, stating that Bamber’s sister, Caffell, who had recently been admitted to hospital with schizophrenia, had killed her family members and then herself. Bamber became a suspect a month later after his former girlfriend Julie Mugford gave a statement to Essex police soon after he ended their relationship stating he had told her he was planning the murders.
It emerged later that Mugford had agreed to sell her story to the News of the World for £25,000 if Bamber was convicted, and that it was agreed she would not be charged with burglary and drug-related offences if she gave evidence against Bamber. Relatives also told Essex police that he was behaving suspiciously and they believed he was guilty. His uncle, Robert Boutflour, provided the police with a narrative of how he thought Bamber had carried out the murders.
The relatives went on to inherit the family’s considerable estate. The restrictions on Bamber’s communication with the media and his campaign team have arisen at a time when media interest in Bamber’s case is growing. Last year, a six-part New Yorker podcast, Blood Relatives, discovered new evidence suggesting that his conviction was unsafe.
Earlier this year, the Guardian commissioned the esteemed forensic physician Prof Jason Payne-James to examine the injuries from the crime scene. He concluded that a silencer had not been used in the shooting of Caffell. The silencer (which was discovered three days later in a downstairs cupboard by his relatives) played a crucial role in determining Bamber’s guilt during the trial.
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