Bamber claims are 'absolute rubbish'

CONVICTED killer Jeremy Bamber's claim that he has evidence clearing him of murder was last nightdismissed as “absolute rubbish” by the first policeman at the scene of the crime.

Former police officer Chris Bews, then a sergeant, was sent to White House Farm, Tolleshunt D'Arcy in the early hours of August 7, 1985, where five members of Bamber's adoptive family were found dead.

Bamber had phoned the police from his Goldhanger home, claiming he had received a call from his father saying his sister, Sheila Caffell, had “gone crazy” in the farmhouse with a gun.

Sgt Bews was at the scene around 20 minutes before Bamber himself arrived, and stayed with the killer while an armed response unit was called.

In the following hours he remained with Bamber outside the premises while armed units approached the building and discovered the horror inside.

Bamber's mother, June, and six-year-old nephews Daniel and Nicholas had been shot at close range with a hunting rifle while they slept in their beds.

His father, Nevill, was found dead downstairs and Sheila - a model known as 'Bambi' - was found by her parents bed with a gun in her hands.

Detectives at first accepted Bamber's claim that Ms Caffell, who had not been taking medication for mental health problems, had been responsible for the killings before taking her own life.

But he was later convicted of the murders. It transpired he stood to inherit £500,000 from the deaths of his family.

Yesterday Bamber claimed he would be free within weeks after his lawyer insisted that previously overlooked evidence revealed that the firearms team had been “in conversation” with somebody in the farmhouse as he and Sgt Bews waited outside.

The phrase was found in a handwritten report of police radio communications made as the operation was carried out.

The log was not directly quoting the messages between officers but instead was noted as reported speech.

Last night Sgt Bews dismissed Bamber's new claims. “I was with him all the time he was there. I arrived about 20 minutes before him and was there for an hour or so after he left, at about 8am.

“At first I was not sure whether there was anybody still in the house. The firearms team did shout in, as they always do.

“You always try and establish a dialogue in a situation like that even if you do not know if there is anybody there.

“They were shouting into the house but they definitely were not talking to anybody. There was no-one there.

“The person who would have made that log would have been 15 miles away at force headquarters in Chelmsford.

“My guess is whoever wrote that down substituted the word 'conversation' for 'talking' or something similar.

“There is absolutely no way they were ever talking to anybody in that house. I am 100 per cent certain of it.

“It sounds like Bamber is going a bit stir crazy. It is absolute rubbish and nonsense.”