Bamber is refused chance to appeal

First Edition

JEREMY BAMBER, who is serving life for murdering five members of his family, yesterday failed in the High Court to have his case referred back to the Court of Appeal.

Bamber, 32, convicted in 1986, claims the prosecution's case against him was flawed because of the possibility of an error in the analysis of a vital blood sample.

But Mr Justice Auld ruled that the possibility of an error was 'remote' and rejected Bamber's application for leave to seek a judicial review of the decision by Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, in July not to refer the case back to the appeal judges.

Bamber's first appeal bid was rejected in 1989. He was convicted of shooting his adoptive parents at their home in Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex; his sister, Sheila Caffell, a former model; and her twin six-year-old sons.

The prosecution said he killed them to inherit a 500,000 fortune. His defence was that Mrs Caffell, who had a history of mental illness, killed the family and then turned the gun on herself.

Mr Justice Auld said that Bamber's forensic scientist had only described it as a reasonable, but small, possibility that there had been an error while the scientist on whom the Home Secretary relied said it was 'an unlikely possibility'.