Police Recording of the Bullets and Cartridge Cases

[Erik Narramore]

One possible consequence of disjointed/non-chronological exhibit numbers is that it would have been easier for somebody so minded to start mixing-up exhibits.  This could have happened if there was a wish to move the position of bullet cases, for instance.

I believe it was a P.C. John Tingey who completed the bullet case diagrams, not D.C. Hammersley.  I have not yet seen a statement from this Tingey about that, but he does give a statement about testing whether Sheila could have reached the trigger and shot herself with the silencer on the rifle.  He will - I must assume - have completed the diagrams on instructions from Hammersley and/or Cook, but I'm not sure when.  Most likely it was done after the shift from SC/688/85 to SC/785/88.  The information may well be somewhere in the primary sources.

Additionally, there are plans (numbered '83') in existence which show the location of both bullet cases and blood marks on each floor of the house.  I am unsure who drew these.

DRH/39 was two separate bullet cases, one of which I have been told was double-marked by the magazine (indicating it was from a cartridge last loaded, first fired).  I'm not clear why D.C. Hammersley allocated the same exhibit reference to two cartridges.  It could be simple error.  Or it could be that he wanted to signify that they had been fired in quick succession.  Or it could be the result of the poor practice of numbering exhibits non-systematically.

One question I have is whether D.C. Bird would have photographed the discernible crime scene ammunition in situ.  I assume he must have done, but are there any crime scene photographs that specifically capture the spent ammunition, i.e. ejected cartridges and spent bullets?  No such photographs have ever been disclosed, and there is no further indication of where they are, if they do exist.

[Erik Narramore]

Carelessness and negligence are probable.  We have no photographic record of the position of the spent ammunition found and it would seem that the relevant draftsmanship was completed weeks after the initial scene-of-crime investigation.  You can tell this is the case because the cartridge case diagrams, especially the one relating to the master bedroom, read as if somebody has interpreted the crime scene through a theory of murder rather than murder-suicide.  That does not mean it is wrong, of course, but two anomalies are the missing cartridge case in the kitchen and the extra four cartridge cases on the main landing.  These tally with the prosecution's case theory but demand that we accept that Nevill is shot four times upstairs - including twice in the face, once in the arm, and once in the neck/shoulder area - yet manages to make it to the kitchen with minimal blood loss, and then has a physical struggle with Jeremy over the rifle, before being shot four times again.  It's not that this is totally impossible, it's more that it seems rather unlikely.

If we assume Jeremy was the killer, then in my view a more likely scenario is that Nevill somehow escapes from the master bedroom before being shot, perhaps because he or June hear somebody in the house with the consequence that Nevill is already up and alert as Jeremy enters the master bedroom.  Jeremy shoots June maybe twice - enough to floor her - and then turns and pursues Nevill, shooting him four times on the stairs.  This would account for the cartridge cases and also explain why Jeremy does not simply catch up with Nevill on the stairs and struggle with him there and then, which you would expect to happen before they reach the kitchen.

Assuming a right-handed user who grips the barrel with his or her left hand and holds the stock/action with his or her right, then the cartridge cases are ejected from the far side and would have projected forwards and to the right at roughly 30 degrees.  We are inside a farmhouse, so these cases will hit, and maybe bounce off, walls, banisters and furniture and what have you.  They will then be kicked around by the raid group officers on first entry (not any fault of those officers, it's unavoidable).  Cases could also have been found on the stairs by raid group officers, who placed them on the landing for reasons of health and safety but then simply forgot to record that they had done so.

Taking all this into account, a further alternative scenario is plausible.  It's quite possible that some of those cartridge cases found upstairs are the result of shots fired as the assailant is ascending the stairs towards his or her target (being Nevill, maybe also June), maybe even from the foot of the stairs; or alternatively, it could be that the target is ascending the stairs towards the assailant, who is also on the stairs but facing the opposite way, which is similar to the Jeremy scenario I outline above in that the projectiles are going downwards but end up bouncing back on to the landing, except perhaps it points more to Sheila.