Statement from Jeremy Bamber on the European Court of Human Rights ruling

"Both the trial judge and the Lord Chief Justice set my minimum tariff as 25 years. Quite why the Home Secretary felt that I should die in jail when the judges felt otherwise is a mystery. To then be told by the European Court that it was reasonable and fair for the Home Secretary to re-sentence me to die in jail is quite extraordinary. This ruling does not really surprise me; it is no different to the injustice of my conviction.

The evidence upon which the Crown have built their case is no longer credible, yet my imprisonment must continue until I’m dead, as evidence of my innocence cannot be disclosed because the Criminal Cases Review Commission have refused to even request it from Essex Police.

I will continue to campaign to prove my innocence and I am hoping that this will happen before my death sentence is carried out.

If the State wishes to have a Death Penalty, then they should be honest and re-introduce hanging. Instead, this political decision that I must die in jail is the Death Penalty using old age or infirmity as the method. It is a method whereby I’m locked in a cell until I’m dead – no matter if it should take 70 or 80 years to happen – I shall be dead the next time I leave jail. This despite that the trial judge said 25 years was punishment enough for a crime I did not commit."

Jeremy

To read the ruling from the ECHR click here vinter & others v the United Kingdom

To view the ITV Anglia News Item Click here (10 minutes into the programme)