Crucial tests carried out on the sound moderator of the rifle used to kill five members of a family at a remote Tolleshunt D'Arcy farmhouse may not have been carried out properly.

Lawyers challenging the conviction of Jeremy Bamber for the murders of his adoptive parents Nevill and June Bamber, his sister Sheila Caffell and her twin sons in 1985 have almost worked through 15 grounds they claim proves his conviction is unsafe

Yesterday, at the Court of Appeal, Michael Turner QC, counsel for Bamber, said at the original trial, the issue of blood flake tests and DNA testing on the sound moderator had been crucial to the prosecution's case.

The appeal heard police initially believed Sheila, a former model who suffered from schizophrenia, had killed her parents and sons before shooting herself.

But suspicion turned to Bamber after the sound moderator was found in a cupboard three days later.

Mr Turner said at the original trial the defence had sought to bring forensic evidence that the tests on a flake of blood found on the silencer could have been a mixture of two types of blood - Nevill and June's - which had mingled and merged as Sheila's blood type.

However, the trial at Chelmsford Crown Court heard tests had been carried out and revealed this was only a "remote possibility".

But in giving evidence for the defence yesterday, forensic expert Mark Webster, said research had revealed more than one test had been carried out on a different section of the flake which should have been dissolved or ground down in order to get an overall sample of it.

"I think it would have been a good idea to have dissolved it and homogenised it first, or ground it into a powder to ensure who took a portion of it was sampling the whole."

He told the three judges presiding over the appeal, Lord Justice Kay, Mr Justice Wright and Mr Justice Henriques, that with this kind of testing the possibility the blood in the silencer could have been a mixture of Nevill and June's moved from the "remote possibility" it had been referred to at the trial to a "very real one".

But in cross-examination by Victor Temple QC, for the crown, he admitted he had not carried out any actual experiments himself to test out his theory.

The appeal also heard DNA samples taken from inside the 17 baffles of the sound moderator had also been proven since the trial to definitely be those of June Bamber.

The appeal continues

Published Wednesday October 30, 2002

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