White House Farm murderer Jeremy Bamber seeks to overturn conviction with new evidence, lawyers say

Table Of Content

• The Murders at White House Farm Official Trailer HBO Max
• Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email
• White House Farm murderer Jeremy Bamber seeks to overturn conviction with new evidence, lawyers say
• Jeremy Bamber at the Court of Appeal in London in 2002
• Police logs, 7 August 1985
• Podcast
• Episode 2: The Family

If you watch her in the first couple of episodes, she hardly says a word. She’s sort of floating around and on Jeremy’s arm or whatever, and building to the point where she comes forward at the end of episode four and says, “I’m going to tell you the truth,” then stands up and speaks that truth, I think that’s a hero’s journey of sorts as well. It allegedly had traces of Ms Caffell's blood on it and, given her injuries, the trial was told she would have been unable to place it in the cupboard before her death.

The Murders at White House Farm Official Trailer HBO Max

Thirty-five years ago, in a crime that horrified and fascinated the nation in equal measure, three generations of his family were murdered in a farmhouse in rural Essex. The infamous White House Farm massacre saw the then 24-year-old’s adoptive parents Nevill and June, sister Sheila Caffell and her twin sons Nicholas and Daniel, both six, all shot dead at the isolated Georgian property. Before the murders, Jeremy Bamber had been working at the family farm and living in Goldhanger in a cottage owned by his father. Bamber had called the Essex police saying that his father contacted him.

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He also began selling off his family's possessions and booking holidays with friends. Here's everything you need know about the real-life events and true story behind the drama. Bamber’s behaviour again came under scrutiny some weeks later, meanwhile, when he contacted The Sun newspaper hoping to sell topless modelling shots of his dead sister. The newspaper declined – and instead ran a story about the bizarre approach. But it was only a month later when Mugford – the now ex-girlfriend who had accompanied Bamber to the funeral – got in touch with police that the case against him really started to build.

White House Farm murderer Jeremy Bamber seeks to overturn conviction with new evidence, lawyers say

PA Images via Getty ImagesJeremy Bamber was jailed for life in 1986 after being convicted of shooting dead his mother, father, sister and twin nephews at the family farmhouse in Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Essex. Jeremy Bamber was convicted and sentenced to life in prison more than 35 years ago for the infamous White House Farm murders in Essex, in which he killed his adoptive parents, his sister and her children. ITV's new factual drama White House Farm revolves around five murders that took place at an Essex farmhouse one night in August 1985, and the subsequent media storm and police blunders following the horrific killings. Yet, despite this treasure trove of forensic evidence, police, influenced by Bamber’s call, almost immediately pinned the blame on Caffell. Her body was found holding a semi-automatic .22 rifle, along with a bible.

Jeremy Bamber at the Court of Appeal in London in 2002

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One week before the murders, Bamber reportedly trashed and robbed the family business at Osea Road Caravan Park. Yet, despite the seemingly irrefutable evidence against him, Bamber still insists he’s innocent. And to this day, his legal teams continue to challenge his conviction. On a cool, windy day in February, two big white dogs escaped from a well-known nonprofit farm in Westchester County and ended up on a public footpath deep in a New York State park.

Police logs, 7 August 1985

Despite protestations to the contrary, Bamber remains in prison today, where he is classified as a Category A criminal — the most dangerous in Britain. And to this day, Jeremy Bamber continues to maintain his innocence. In 2004, he filed a lawsuit with the British High Court that argued he was still entitled to his parents’ estate as the sole surviving member of the family.

Podcast

The tabloids also splashed the story across their front pages, sensationalising the events and focussing on Sheila's former modelling career and on her mental health. The line had gone dead, he told officers, after the sound of a shot. Jeremy and Julie, their relationship, I think that there’s a lot to do with him being, again, the son of a squire, and the rather more polished young gent who’s gone to a public school and who is dating a woman who’s probably from a humbler background.

So, I think that even the way that feeds into some of the key relationships in the story, struck me as being inflected in a very English way. His current lawyers had asked for ITV to postpone showing White House Farm until the latest court hearing, a judicial review bid against the Director of Public Prosecutions, had been heard. Bamber has never admitted to the killings and has had several appeals against his convictions rejected or not allowed to be heard. He told them that after the sound of a shot the line had gone dead. His former brother-in-law Colin Caffell, Sheila's ex-husband and father of murdered Nicholas and Daniel, six, said Bamber was "charismatic" and "charming". Jeremy Bamber’s birth parents were only told of his true identity after his conviction — and by then, the pair were married and working at Buckingham Palace, under the charge of Queen Elizabeth II.

When did the police suspect Jeremy Bamber?

But it’s easy to forget how recently our attitudes to things like mental illness have been shaken up and changed, I hope. "I cannot say whether he is guilty or not, but certainly from the evidence I have heard from people who have met him, and evidence of former prisoners with him, he does not fit the profile of a mass murderer." His last attempt at getting a new trial was in 2013, but he was unsuccessful, though his lawyers have filed a new appeal as of March 2021.

At first officers suspected Ms Caffell, who was found with her fingers around the .22 calibre rifle used to shoot all five, but suspicion fell on Bamber after Julie Mugford told police he had plotted to kill his parents for his £436,000 inheritance. Prior to the murders he had been working on the family farm and living in a cottage in nearby Goldhanger, which was owned by his father. Instead, he engaged in petty theft, once breaking into a jewelry shop and stealing watches. He also may have begun dealing heroin before finally returning to England, where he worked menial jobs. By 1985, the year of the murders, he had returned to work on his family farm.

"What I experienced after it all happened was, yes, everybody accepted that Jeremy was guilty. [But] they kept on saying to me, 'But yes, Sheila was a drug addict wasn’t she?', 'She used to beat the children didn’t she?' and I said 'No that’s not true'," he said. Speaking at the press screening of White House Farm, Colin Caffell, the real-life ex-husband of Sheila Caffell, revealed that the initial press coverage of the murders has long impacted the way Sheila is viewed. Bamber’s behaviour at the funeral did not just raise suspicions with Caffell, a sculptor now aged 66.

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White House Farm: Sheila Caffell responsible for murders, film claims.

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I guess, then maybe the show’s done another good thing. I mean, Jeremy is in a maximum security prison still, and I assume he’s able to watch an ITV TV show one way or another, so I would be astonished if he hadn’t. I’ve always thought that some of the worst people in the world have gotten to that terrible place not through just deciding to be evil and taking one huge leap into the realm of evil-doing. It’s so often an accumulation of small steps in the wrong direction. And each step in itself feels, okay, well you justify it or you rationalize, and then you suddenly wake up one day and look back and think, “Oh, Christ. ” And that’s sort of how I’ve always felt about her character.

White House Farm (broadcast in some countries under the titles White House Farm Murders and The Murders at White House Farm) is a British television crime drama based on the real-life events that took place in August 1985. According to The Mail on Sunday, a defence dossier sent to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) contains 10 new pieces of evidence, according to Bamber's lawyers. 14 months after the initial crime, Sheila was vindicated and Jeremy Bamber was found guilty of the five murders, as the judge described him as "evil, almost beyond belief".

The pair’s relationship had fallen apart by this point and Bamber has always maintained Mugford made up the allegations as revenge for him ending their relationship. He was found guilty of the five killings and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Judge, Justice Drake described him as “evil, almost beyond belief”.

The disturbing encounter’s aftermath has been considerable. The farm, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, which is connected to Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Pocantico Hills, filed an appeal on Thursday to stay the dogs’ euthanization. According to the claims, burns on the father's back were not caused by the hot part of a rifle, as the jury was told in 1986, but by a hot kitchen AGA cooker. They say the evidence raises questions over a gruesome key detail highlighted by the judge at Bamber's trial. The Essex house and site of the 1985 murders wasn't demolished, as one might expect - instead, it's now the home of a classic car rental company.

On the night of August 6th, 1985, just outside of the picturesque village of Tolleshunt D’Arcy in Essex, England, a shocking attack left five members – and three generations – of a family brutally murdered. At first, the police thought they were dealing with an open-and-shut case, suspecting that it was Sheila Caffell – diagnosed with schizophrenia – who had shot her adoptive parents and twin sons before turning the gun on herself. As one detective set out to prove, however, certain elements of that narrative that didn’t add up – and the spotlight turned to Sheila’s brother, Jeremy Bamber. Each episode of the podcast takes a deeper dive into one of six nuanced themes that contributed to the particularly disturbing nature of this surprisingly complicated case, providing further context and background for this horrific crime. Revolves around the true story of a fateful night in August 1985 when five members of the same family are murdered at an Essex farmhouse, and the ensuing police investigation and court case ... It was the smutty jokes Jeremy Bamber cracked during the funeral of his parents and sister that first raised alarm bells.