A forensic expert has described how pig skin was used to test the notion that police moved Jeremy Bamber’s father’s body before official images were taken at the scene of the infamous White House Farm killings.
Bamber is currently serving a life sentence for the murders of his adopted parents, Nevill and June Bamber, both 61, as well as his adoptive sister, Sheila Caffell, 28, and her six-year-old twins.
On August 7, 1985, the entire family was shot at their Essex farm house, and Bamber was convicted of their murders. He still maintains his innocence.
Nevill Bamber was discovered with burn scars on his back that police and the trial judge suspected were caused by the hot end of a rifle, implying that Bamber tortured his family before murdering them.
However, in a video clip supplied to MailOnline by film maker Matt Harris, who is working on a documentary on the case, expert Philip Boyce explained how a test he assisted with put doubt on the official explanation for the burn scars.
Mr Boyce, who has worked on high-profile investigations for 30 years, was investigating the notion that the burns were caused by Mr Bamber’s back being forced against the handles of the hot Aga oven after he was shot.
Mr Harris learned that the Bamber Aga belonged to his parents-in-law in Sussex, so they conducted testing at their house.
‘Based on what I’ve really done today using pig skin and effectively burning pig skin on the front of the Aga, there is a definite potential that the burn scars on Nevill’s back might have been formed with the Aga,’ Mr Boyce stated in the video footage on the day of the test.
‘It is extremely significant in that it reveals that there is a potential that Nevill Bamber’s corpse was physically relocated after the police got on the site.’
‘And, for lack of a better phrase, the evidence was essentially modified.’
If the idea is right, it might imply that police physically relocated Mr Bamber’s body.
Nevill is shown lying over an overturned chair in the kitchen in images handed to the trial jury at Chelmsford Crown Court in 1986, having been shot.
Mr Boyce also wrote a report, which he presented to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
‘This might imply that Nevill Bamber’s corpse was relocated somehow to the location he was photographed in after he was burnt by the Aga,’ it says of the burns.
Mr Harris, a filmmaker, has been following the Bamber case for about a year.
He said that after chatting with Bamber, he learned that his wife’s parents’ oven is the same model as the one at White House Farm.
‘That came from conversing with Jeremy; he mentioned the term Aga, and his campaign staff discussed it,’ he told MailOnline.
‘About two weeks later, I was dropping the dogs off at my in-laws when I saw they had the same Aga as White House Farm.’
‘It was incredibly coincidental, who would have imagined they’d have the same Aga?’ he continued. It’s 50 years old and hard to come by.
When asked why he is developing a film about the case, Mr Harris stated that the 2020 ITV drama about the case piqued his curiosity.
He stated that he has subsequently corresponded extensively with Bamber.
‘I recall everyone talking about the case,’ he added. ‘I watched the drama and felt it made no sense, that no one would kill their family like this.’
‘The more I watched old material, the more he reminded me of my schoolmates.’ I just stated that I do not believe it.
‘I then spent six months investigating it, engaging with the campaign staff, and then beginning communication with him.’
Mr Harris told the Mail on Sunday that a photograph of Nevill Bamber’s body shows that the kitchen door is closed and there are two chairs in front of it.
‘This is the sole door coming into the kitchen from the outside, and this is where Essex Police entered… [they] were the only individuals that walked inside White House Farm that day and could have closed that door and put those chairs in that manner.’
‘To restage the crime scene is a moral violation,’ Bamber said on Saturday from HMP Wakefield.
‘These questions should have been addressed 37 years ago.’ It’s not a case of my proving anything or escaping on a technicality. I’d like to use evidence to show my innocence.’
He has always maintained his innocence, claiming that Sheila, a paranoid schizophrenic, committed the crimes before shooting herself.
The killings at White House Farm that rocked Britain
The savage murder of two adorable boys, their mother, and their grandparents in August 1985 at a quiet farmhouse in the Essex countryside was one of those horrific events that stuck with me.
Not least because everyone initially assumed the perpetrator was one of the victims.
Schizophrenic Sheila Caffell, the adoptive daughter of Nevill and June Bamber, was accused of murdering her parents and her six-year-old twins Daniel and Nicholas before killing herself.
Police assumed it was a closed case until they became suspicious of Sheila’s adoptive brother Jeremy Bamber, who would have earned a big fortune.
He informed authorities that his father had contacted him at his neighboring house on the day of the killings to say Sheila had a pistol and had gone ‘berserk,’ but those suspicions led to Jeremy being charged with the five murders, and he was sentenced to life in prison in 1986.
In many respects, this case characterized its period. It was the first multiple murder case of its kind, and police errors resulted in significant revisions. It was also significant because of how Sheila and her mental health difficulties were handled.
The cops first believe Jeremy’s account about his sister becoming insane. Their suspicions were quickly aroused.
Detective Sergeant Stan Jones was one of the policemen who had not been persuaded by Bamber, claiming that he had alerted higher officers that they ‘had not been satisfied’ with the way Bamber had behaved himself.
Bamber was eventually apprehended and charged with the murders of his parents, sister, and her twin boys.
He was convicted of all five murders and sentenced to life in prison a year later.
He has now challenged his life sentence multiple times and spoken out, asserting his innocence.
He is a category A inmate in Yorkshire’s HMP Wakefield.
»A forensic scientist admits to using PIG SKIN to test a notion concerning the Jeremy Bamber case«