New legal twist in murder case fight (From Basingstoke Gazette)

New legal twist in murder case fight

5:00pm Monday 14th February 2011 in News By Chris Gregory

A FORMER Basingstoke MP is gearing up for a further legal battle after hearing that the case of convicted killer Jeremy Bamber may not be referred to the Court of Appeal.

As revealed in The Gazette on Thursday, Andrew Hunter has been campaigning for the past eight years on behalf of Bamber, who is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 1986 of killing five members of his own family at a farmhouse in Essex.

Bamber, who is now 50, has always protested his innocence, claiming that one of the victims in the shooting, Sheila Caffell, had shot her parents and her twin sons before turning the .22 rifle on herself.

Mr Hunter’s examination of the original evidence, and the emergence of new material, have persuaded the ex-MP that Bamber is a victim of what he has described as one of the most “ghastly miscarriages of justice for many decades.”

But on Friday, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates alleged miscarriages of justice, announced a provisional decision not to refer Bamber’s case to the Court of Appeal.

Mr Hunter, who represented the Basingstoke constituency for 22 years until the 2005 General Election, said: “It’s a provisional decision, which we are very disappointed about. I thought our case was very strong, but there was always the possibility that other factors would come under consideration.”

He added that he and other Bamber supporters will now work hard to pick holes in the CCRC’s reasoning.

A statement from the CCRC said it had sent an 89-page document to Bamber’s legal team, setting out “in detail” why it had rejected the case.

The reasons for the provisional decision were not mentioned in the statement, although a blog run by Bamber’s supporters said the CCRC has questioned the methodology of Bamber’s alleged new evidence.

The CCRC statement said: “Given the lengthy and highly complex nature of the case, we have given Mr Bamber and his team three months in which to respond to our provisional decision (usually the period for a case of this type is 40 working days).

“The Commission will then consider whatever representations it receives from Mr Bamber and his team, before making a final decision on whether or not to refer the case for a fresh appeal hearing.”