A BID by convicted killer Jeremy Bamber for the release of evidence which he claims could clear his name has been rejected by a High Court judge.

Bamber is serving life behind bars after being found guilty of murdering his adoptive parents Nevill and June, both 61, his sister Sheila Caffell, 26, and her six-year-old twins Daniel and Nicholas at White House Farm in Tolleshunt D’Arcy in August 1985.

He has always protested his innocence and claims Sheila, who suffered from schizophrenia, shot her family before turning the gun on herself.

The prosecution case at Bamber’s trial in 1986 centred on the fact Sheila could not have reached the trigger to kill herself if the silencer was attached to the murder weapon.

However, Bamber’s lawyers claim the Crown Prosecution Service has not disclosed material about a second silencer which is said to have been found at White House Farm.

Gazette:

Joe Stone QC, representing Bamber, told a remote High Court hearing “it now seems almost certain that there is a second sound moderator” - evidence he suggested could “significantly undermine the prosecution case”.

Mr Stone argued Bamber, 59, would be “significantly handicapped” in mounting a fresh bid to overturn his conviction through the Criminal Cases Review Commission without the evidence he sought.

Giving judgment, Mr Justice Julian Knowles dismissed the latest legal action.

He said: “I am not, on the material I have seen, readily able to accept the premise the existence of a second sound moderator is capable of affecting the safety of the claimant’s convictions in any meaningful way.

“The facts are the moderator which was found had Ms Caffell’s blood in it and she could not have shot herself when the sound moderator was attached to the rifle.”

The judge continued: “If ever there was a case where the CCRC should be approached to make a decision on what is said to be new evidence, it is this one.

“After so many years and so much litigation, the CCRC is the body undoubtedly best placed to consider the claimant’s arguments.”

Bamber has previously had two appeals against his convictions dismissed by the Court of Appeal . The CCRC refused to refer his case for another appeal in 2012.