Jeremy's sexuality

[Erik Narramore]

Why shouldn't this be a factor?  I doubt anybody would claim it was the only reason, but why shouldn't it have come into play?  The Birmingham Six would say they were stitched up because they were Irish (in fact, they were all Irish Republicans).  Judith Ward was an IRA groupie.  My point is that the personal habits, views, and lifestyle choices of an individual can firm them up as a suspect, especially if these personal attributes have some relevance to the case itself.  It turned out that Judith Ward was innocent.

In the present case, and to give due credit to Stan Jones (who was an able detective), Jeremy's slightly decadent, 'alternative', metropolitan outlook and lifestyle formed a background against which a picture could be painted of him as someone materialistic rather than dutiful and, taken together with other things, allowed the prosecution to portray Jeremy as perhaps the type of person who would seek to escape a rural north Essex life and might - just might - resort to desperate measures to do it.  If it turns out that Stan Jones was wrong, then this train of thought starts to look a bit prejudiced.  Indeed, I'm told that early in his prison career, Jeremy Bamber was subscribing to Farmers Weekly.  Was that just to give him another appeal point?  And even his detractors base their detraction on Jeremy wanting to use the money he would inherit to buy a small farm in Devon.  Why would they come up with something like that?  Why would Jeremy want to sell up one farm-business conglomerate that is prosperous and doing well only to set up another in some random part of the country he has no connection to?  Does that make any sense to you?