In the history of criminal convictions in the modern era, there remains one mystifying tragedy and story which still seems to catch the public imagination namely the case almost universally colloquially referred to as "The White House Farm Murders “.
It has fed the national media for now 36 years and in more recent times has been the subject matter of social media debate in which anyone who thinks they have an opinion can offer it good or bad without filters. It seems to be a case that uniquely causes people to fall into the two distinct camps that either Jeremy Bamber is the victim of the most egregious wrongful conviction or that he was a monster who killed his own family.
In 2020 it was turned into a Drama Series by ITV and that in turn led to a frenzy of media reporting over the case.
Yet there have always it appears been a significant number of questions about this case, and a feeling that there remain unresolved issues which have been consistently raised by certain parts of the media and of course those committed to supporting Jeremy Bamber.
It is a case which attracted our attention towards the end of 2016 following an approach by Jeremy Bamber’s Campaign Team and that started a journey that brought us to the pivotal moment when the application of Jeremy Bamber has been lodged with the commission.
This has been a long journey and required the case had to be reconstructed from the ground up following a release of 347 ,000 sheets of evidence when PII protection ran out . This was delivered by a new Legal team led by Joe Stone QC and junior counsel Matt Stanbury and supported by the invaluable support of Jeremy’s Campaign Team.
Prior to this point it was like Jeremy Bamber had a jigsaw with most of the pieces missing. Slowly that jigsaw started to be completed to the point today where we can give the commission the chance to finally complete the puzzle with its focussed investigations.
This has been a journey that has never forgotten that at the centre of it is a family tragedy and one that still affects all the participants today including Jeremy Bamber.
But it has also been astonishing in terms of the picture that is now uncovered and how far away from the original trial narrative this case now presented to the commission is.
The Commission have now been presented with a digital store of material which touches on 8 focussed grounds of appeal. For the detractors it should be made clear that this is not a submission based on Jeremy Bamber simply reasserting his innocence. This is instead a very detailed and focussed application based on material which has been uncovered since 2011.
The audit trail now uncovered raises very serious questions over withheld evidence, misleading of the jury, interference with the crime scene, the movement of key evidence, altered phone records and admitted destruction of original exhibits.
As time goes on in this case, we hope to be able to share parts of the evidence which now supports the fact that every part of the reported case appears to be untrue, and there is now a new narrative to be told which if accepted by the Commission and then in turn the Court of Appeal should lead to Jeremy Bamber being exonerated.
And if this does happen what will this mean for our Justice system?
it will certainly be the most significant reminder of the dangers of miscarriages of justice and why we must have a strong CCRC and a robust but fair Court of Appeal with the resources to deliver a modern Criminal Appeal Process that provides justice to the genuinely wrongfully convicted no matter how long ago they occurred or what the implications of those decisions will be for the Justice System.
This could not be timelier considering the concerns raised by the Westminster Commission in their Report issued on 4th March 2021.
So, we look forward now to Starting Chapter 1 of this new story and seeing where this takes us, the next part of the story must now be written by the CCRC......