Maria
I’ve known Jeremy for a comparatively short time when you consider that he has been in prison for over 26 years, in fact I was still in school when the tragedy at White House Farm occurred. I had read about the case and seen it on the news, I never gave it a second thought really and so I never questioned the case at all.
Like most people I thought the integrity of the police was without question, save for a few low down ‘bent coppers’ but since I have known Jeremy and seen his case materials on the internet, the true picture is one which is very different. There are a catalogue of mistakes, fabrications and cover ups throughout which I would never have believed possible had I not seen it with my own eyes. Forensic scientists either tricked or deliberately altering documents to obtain a conviction continue to ignore the truth of what has gone on. Alleged noble cause corruption is a very serious matter, if an individual is not tried fairly then mistakes happen, innocent people are convicted of crimes they cannot possibly have committed and there was no evidence to connect Jeremy to the crime he is convicted of.
I’ve seen ignorant police officers happy to alter the chain of evidence in the belief that a young woman with an axe to grind was actually telling the truth about the murders. All trace of other lies she told were never followed up, if it was found that Mugford had told lies about other things then her integrity as a witness would fall. I for one would like to know what is contained in the confidential Crown Prosecution File on Julie Mugford.
I had also believed that the Criminal Cases Review Commission was an organisation independent of government, how wrong I was. I felt confident in myself that they did all they could to help people fighting a miscarriage of justice. But in Jeremy’s case he has seen nothing but constant rejection of requests for documents which the CCRC are obliged by law to obtain for his lawyers.
I have spent time with letters and emails contacting my MP and our political leaders, all of my requests are met with a closed door,
an abrupt off the cuff comment. Even recently turning to our Church leaders Bishops and Archbishops, all my correspondence met with “sorry but we cannot get involved”. Jeremy and his campaigners have looked more widely at the reasons why access to evidence is obstructed and have encouraged openness from judicial departments, this too is largely ignored, with all not wanting to see that the problem is much wider than just one isolated case. If it is “not their problem,” then whose problem is it? Who will take responsibility for the charade known as justice? No one it seems. The suggestion often is that Jeremy is the only person struggling this way. I have worked with other people who have suffered at the hands of the British legal system and corruption is virulent in the UK today and has been for at least 30 years or more. Some days I feel ashamed to be British to put my name to a country which allows basic human rights laws to be ignored. Jeremy’s last appeal should never have failed, it was proven that Sheila Caffell’s DNA was not in the sound moderator and it was not used to kill her. Even the 1986 jury did not believe Julie Mugford as they couldn’t make a decision until after they saw the evidence of the blood in the moderator again. We all know that Sheila Caffell killed the family, women kill their kids all the time in the UK today.
How Jeremy continues to cope with his life as a convicted murderer in prison is an inspiration to me, he is a kind and gentle man I know. When I walk through the park with my dogs, I look around at the world he is missing and I feel upset, angry, and more determined to do more to help him to freedom.
Passing a lie detector in 2007 after pleading to take one for many years appears to account for nothing to the authorities, even though it is readily accepted in society that you are telling the truth if you pass and are lying if you fail.
The credibility of his relatives who testified in court including Robert Boutflour, has been impugned beyond all redemption. From the date of his conviction they have torn like a pack of hyenas at the carcass of the Bamber estate, fighting amongst themselves for something they had no more right to than thieves in the night. And yet Jeremy Bamber’s conviction still stands. There is a higher law than that of the British justice system, it is the law of conscience and retribution and crimes against Jeremy will eventually be judged not only in this life, but in the next.
Maria