I thought I’d talk a little bit about what will happen next with
the issue regarding the disclosure of the case documents. This shouldn’t be contentious
but Essex Police have spent the last thirty years inventing spurious reasons
why certain things cannot be disclosed to the defence. Much material generated before the trial including Sheila's medical records and statements by foster carers for the twins as well as audio's and logs of my dad's call to the police were not disclosed to the trial court or subsequent appeals in 1988 and 2002.
In a letter to the Chief Constable of Essex from the C.P.S.
dated 07.03.91 it states[1]:
“It is clear from his previous
letters that Bamber is looking for every opportunity to make complaints about
the handling of his case and the evidence presented by officers of the Essex
Police. The state of those statements as lodged with the Crown Court at Trial,
were to authorise the handing over of these statements to DCI Ellis. I fear
that it would simply be providing Bamber with another opportunity to make
allegations of a similar nature in the future”.
This has meant that since 1991 essential information generated or obtained as a result of the City of London Police investigation has not been
disclosed either to my lawyers or to myself. Where disclosure has taken place,
there are always pages missing from the documents, or paragraphs of text
blanked out. Neither Essex Police nor the C.P.S. have made complete disclosure of any evidence since 1991, even when ordered to make full
disclosure of certain documents by a Judge, what was disclosed was never what
should have been; as to do so would prove my innocence.
After thirty years of research, I now know what the material
is that I want disclosed. I’ve directly requested this case material from Essex
Police myself and instructed my lawyers to request this material from Essex Police.
I have also asked the Police Complaints Authority to request this evidence from
Essex Police and I’ve asked the Criminal Cases Review Commission to use their section17 powers to obtain this un-disclosed evidence and in every case, Essex
Police have refused to hand over the evidence being asked for. In total between
my lawyers and myself at least fifty requests have been made seeking
disclosure of case evidence being held by Essex Police, all to no avail.
I now plan to ask my M.P. The Rt. Hon. Mary Creagh, and two M.E.P’s, Linda McAvan and Richard Corbett, to
ask Essex Police for disclosure of the material set out in my petition. I am
hoping that Essex Police concede that they can no longer withhold the evidence
that’s being requested from them by my M.E.P’s and my M.P. The open letter making the request will be published on my web site along with responses.
With luck, requests made via my M.P. and M.E.P’s might help
persuade Essex Police to fulfil their obligation to disclose. After thirty years
of asking I do hope so especially as we have now reached the 29th
anniversary of my conviction there is no reason for the evidence proving my
innocence not to be disclosed.
To find out more about the evidence we still require from police check and sign our petition.
Jeremy.
