Was Nevill Really Shot In The Main Bedroom?

[Erik Narramore]

Both the pro-guilt camp and the 2002 appeal court assume the parents were fired on within the master bedroom (albeit maybe with Jeremy standing at the threshold of that room).  This makes sense for June, but there is a question mark over what happened with Nevill.

It seems to me that a number of points of evidence are not consistent with Nevill receiving four shots in the master bedroom.

Two of the bullet casings aren't consistent with it.  Maybe we could let this go on the basis that somebody accidentally moved them, but that's only a 'maybe'.  I'm not sure it's as easy as people might think to accidentally move them, and they would have to be moved not just several feet, but through walls.  I tend to the view that the bullet casings may have been negligently displaced instead, due to deficiencies in the SOCO procedures, rather than just being 'kicked'.

However, whatever the explanation, it does seem that even the Crown implicitly rest on the premise that the bullet casings had to be moved.  This surprises me.  The whole scenario surprises me, because I would have thought it easier to say that Jeremy shot Nevill from the landing as Nevill is descending the stairs.  I wonder why that isn't your scenario?  Is it because you would then struggle to explain the lack of blood on the main landing and stairs?

That observation neatly brings me to the blood.  The blood evidence doesn't fit, but I need to research that more.  It could well be that you are right to some extent and the drippage of blood would have been minimal, but let's bear in mind that Nevill was wearing pyjamas, which are presumably loose-fitting, so we can't account for the problem by saying the blood absorbed into his clothing.  Where did it go?  You say there wasn't much of it.  I reserve some considerable doubt about that given the nature of the injuries.  I note from the pathologist's report that Nevill's pyjamas were soaked with blood at the end, so he bled heavily at some point.

There is also the problem that we have to believe that a grievously injured Nevill would barge past Jeremy.

Another issue is that Jeremy is firing five times into June when he knows he needs to fell Nevill.  I don't quite understand that.  Was June a serious threat to him?  Bear in mind here that he unquestionably shot her in bed, a fact that adds to the puzzle.  Then we have her moving around the bedroom, to an extent that I'm not yet clear about, even though she's been shot five times.

I also don't quite understand why such a sharp shot as Jeremy would bungle this.  Nevill and June are surely easier targets than the twins.  They're bigger.

Then we have the problem of choreographing the melee downstairs.

If Jeremy has run out of bullets at the threshold of the master bedroom, this means implicitly that he no longer fires into June, and we know June receives no other corporeal injuries, so his full attention is on Nevill.

Nevill barges past him, you say.

That means Jeremy would be closely behind Nevill.

Jeremy can't stop to fire.  He's out of ammunition.

So why does't Jeremy catch up with Nevill before they reach the kitchen?  The fight should be over and done with long before they reach the kitchen, shouldn't it?  The old warhorse has four bullets in him and he's 61.  It should be easy for Jeremy, no?  And it was easy for Jeremy in the kitchen, wasn't it, so we have the proof.  So why didn't Jeremy deal with Nevill earlier?  What difference does it make to the big plan?  In fact, the nearer Nevill is to the master bedroom, the better, surely?  Thus, they should be having a struggle on the stairs, or in the main foyer at the very farthest, would they not?

[Erik Narramore]

Jeremy firing at Nevill on the landing is a bit more plausible.  I think Jeremy firing at Nevill within the bedroom is awkward altogether, due to the length of the rifle (and that probably explains how Nevill got past him).

But, Nevill's four wounds are on his left side, so firing at him from the landing in the direction of the stairs is a bit a problem.  I do appreciate that maybe two of the wounds would have been inflicted in the bedroom.  Perhaps the facial wounds while Nevill was in bed, as he is on the right hand side of the bed; then, the arm and neck/shoulder wound is while fleeing Jeremy.

Would Nevill have faced back in the direction of Jeremy at any point as he descended the stairs and Jeremy stood on the main landing?  I think there is [was] a 90-degree turn in the stairs.

[Erik Narramore]

I once said that if Nevill was shot in bed, he would touch the wound, then leave blood on the sheets.  Potentially blood would also drip from the wound or there would be contact between the wound and the bedclothes, or both.  I think the only way that could not be the case is if he was shot as he was getting out of bed.  It was at this point that Adam (Blue Forum) changed his story to say that he was shot as he was getting out of bed, or something like that, which implies acceptance that Nevill was not shot while still in bed.   
 
Of course, we can't be sure there was no blood of Nevill's on the bedclothes.  It only looks that way, based on the scene of crime photographs and the blood results.  It is possible that blood of Nevill's on the bedclothes was simply missed by the scene of crime officers, and the evidence was destroyed in the ensuing days (albeit that samples were taken).

The reality is that nobody, except possibly Jeremy Bamber (and perhaps not even him) knows what happened.  I just acknowledge this.  We can only use the facts and evidence to speculate, hence the scenarios discussed here.  If Jeremy did this, then either Nevill has fled downstairs instead of fighting Jeremy in the bedroom, or Nevill was never in the bedroom, or a combination of the two.  I suspect it is one of the latter.  Either Nevill slept downstairs or he went out of the bedroom to investigate noise.

[Erik Narramore]

I think it's reasonable to conclude from the absence of blood that Nevill was not shot in bed.

Was he shot in the main bedroom at all?  I do not believe he was.  You only have to consider the angle of shot for bullet injuries 3 to 8, which could have not been inflicted in the main bedroom.  Then consider shots 1 and 2.  These were inflicted to Nevill's right side at a roughly 90-degree angle, yet Nevill was sleeping on the right side of the bed, and the bed was perpendicular to the door.  It's not absolutely impossible - for instance, Nevill could have started for the box room, which would have meant turning his right side to Jeremy, but then why wouldn't Jeremy just kill him there and then if his shooting was that deadly accurate?  And having been shot in the head (note: the head, not the face), would Nevill really be able to do much, if anything, from that point?  Maybe.  Dr. Vanezis stated explicitly that any one of the head region shots to Nevill could have been fatal - but only 'could have'.  I accept Nevill could have survived 1 and 2 for a period.  But we are saying that he somehow gets past Jeremy, reaches the landing presumably with Jeremy on his heels (remember that Jeremy has already taken June out of it, albeit she survives for a while).  Nevill then lingers on the landing for at least a few seconds (if we believe that the blood stain was from him, not June).  He then has to negotiate the stairs, with Jeremy following him.  The stairs are narrow and the rifle may impede Jeremy a little, but he manages to shoot and hit Nevill and Nevill must have stumbled on the first landing.  They reach the kitchen and Jeremy finally kills Nevill.

What we're left with is a scenario that, while not impossible or entirely implausible, does fall at the lower end of plausibility.  It's much more plausible that Nevill was shot outside the bedroom, probably initially while ascending or descending the main stairs.  Unfortunately for the prosecution and for the safety of these convictions, that scenario does point more to Sheila to Jeremy.  It implicitly lends support to Jeremy's claim of a phone call from Nevill.  It is plausible that Sheila would shoot June first but prevaricate over shooting her father, who may have been following her up the stairs after abandoning a call to Jeremy.  She shoots at June, then turns to fire on her father and follows him downstairs.  He is retreating in the hope of drawing her fire or maybe reaching the phone again, this time to make a 999 call.  However, he is injured and Sheila catches up with him, maybe shoots him again, and assaults him with the rifle stock.  The defence have to explain the blood on the landing, but that result was indicative not conclusive and could have been June's, as she may have initially faced Sheila on the landing before backing into the bedroom.

Of course, Jeremy may even have engineered the scenario to help make Sheila look guilty, but that doesn't seem very plausible as it would require Jeremy to let Nevill run downstairs, and at this point it does look like we are bending the evidence to make Jeremy guilty rather than accepting the evidence as it is.  As extraordinary as it seems, Sheila could have killed her family and an innocent man may be in prison.