Disputed Bamber call 'a key point'

Bamber has always proclaimed his innocence

The question of whether Jeremy Bamber received a call from his father to say that his sister had gone berserk with a gun came under the spotlight at the Court of Appeal on Wednesday.

Michael Turner QC, for Bamber, told three judges in London that this was one of three key points the jury had been asked to decide before reaching their guilty verdicts.

On the fifth day of Bamber's appeal against conviction for murder, Mr Turner said the prosecution's case at his Chelmsford Crown Court trial in October 1986 was that such a call had not been made.

Bamber is serving life for murdering five members of his adoptive family at their Essex home nearly 17 years ago.

'Crazy'

Bamber called police in the early hours of 7 August 1985 and said that his father phoned him to say that his sister, Sheila Caffell, had gone crazy with a gun.

At White House Farm in Tolleshunt d'Arcy, Essex, police found Bamber's mother June, 61, and six-year-old nephews Nicholas and Daniel shot dead in their beds.

His father Nevill, 61, was downstairs, while his 27-year-old sister, a model nicknamed Bambi, was found by her parents' bed.

Detectives initially suspected that Miss Caffell had murdered her parents and sons before turning the gun on herself.

They arrested Bamber, who stood to inherit almost £500,000 from his parents' deaths, nine weeks later.

On Wednesday Mr Turner told the hearing that one of the three significant points the trial judge had asked the jury to decide was whether Bamber had received a call from his father in the middle of the night.

Call timing

The QC said the "principal contest" at trial was whether or not Bamber had telephoned his then girlfriend, Julie Mugford, before he telephoned police.

The key factor related to the timing of that call. Mr Turner took the judges through a series of statements dealing with that issue.

He submitted that, in his summing-up, the judge at Bamber's trial had been saying to the jury that they could not be sure about the phone call.

The hearing was adjourned until Thursday.