AC3.1 full marks that I used in my controlled assessment and I received an A*. This writeup was marked by my 2 criminology teachers who are also Criminology Examiners.
In 1986, 24-year-old Jeremy Bamber was jailed for life for killing five members of his adoptive family
at their farmhouse in Essex. He was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years for the murders of his step-
parents, sister and her two six-year-old sons. He originally tried to fame his sister for the murders.
He called the police and said that his father had called him, saying that his sister had a gun and was
shooting everyone. When police stormed the house they found everyone shot and killed but the
sister was seen cradling the gun with gunshot wounds in her neck, which looked to be a suicide
attempt. After a month Bamber was arrested. His girlfriend at the time (Julie Mugford) claimed that
Jeremy told her that he hired a hitman to commit the murders and so Bamber was charged with
murder.
Evidence
In the circumstantial evidence, Jeremy wanted to ‘kill his family’ according to Julie. Sheila
was not interested in weapons as she ‘lacked coordination,’ this was simply an assumption (§82
of law report). According to §20 of the law report, Jeremy killed his family because he wanted
to inherit a hefty sum of money (£435,000). ADD more evidence
Media Reports
There were many reports that dramatised certain individuals in the case. For example,
Sheila, (Jeremy’s Sister). The media held a significant amount of bias towards Sheila and
accused her of the murders. Headlines such as ‘Deranged Divorcee,’ ‘Suicide Girl Kills Twins’
were out there, vilifying her. But once Jeremy was accused, the media removed Sheila from
the spotlight and poured all their attention towards Jeremy. Headlines such as ‘Twisted
Bamber’, ‘Bamber Beast’ were created. So, media reports were opinionated, had lots of bias
towards individuals. They also lack accuracy as tabloids mostly made these sensationalised
headlines and as a result, decreases validity of the media report. It was also not used in the
case/trial directly and so there was no currency.
Law Report
In the Law Report there are several articles which provide grounds for appeal for Jeremy.
This includes non disclosure of evidence in the trial, police misconduct and new DNA
evidence. One ground of appeal is how the prosecution evidence was not disclosed. This
could lead to bias in the final verdict as all the evidence was not present. However, it was
not added as it was considered to be invalid in the law report and so the documents were
not considered current and so it was not a valid ground for an appeal. Another ground of
appeal is police misconduct. According to the Law Report §233, the armed officers who
stormed into the house knocked over chairs, stools and a sugar bowl. This was used against
Jeremy stating that there could have been a ‘violent struggle against Jeremy and his father’
, and that ‘Sheila would have been incapable of overpowering her father’. However, this is not
valid as there was no proof that police knocked over the sugar and the stools and chairs.
Final Judgement
The majority of the jury found Jeremy guilty in the final judgement. As a result, the judge
sentenced Jeremy to life imprisonment. This judgement would be valid as it was made by
the jury who heard all evidence in court and for the evidence to be used in court it would
have to be accurate and unbiased. Even though there was extensive media coverage and it
would be guaranteed that the jury would have read some of the media articles which
could’ve caused impact on their final judgement, according to the law report, the media had
no impact on judgements.
Hillsborough Disaster
The Hillsborough disaster occurred on April 15, 1989, at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South
Yorkshire, England, during a football game. It happened in the two standing-only central pens of the
Leppings Lane stand designated for Liverpool fans during an FA Cup semifinal between Liverpool and
Nottingham Forest. A few minutes before kickoff, police match commander David Duckenfield
instructed exit gate C to be opened in an effort to relieve crowding at the admission turnstiles. As a
result, a large number of fans entered the pens. This led to a crush and an overpopulation of those
pens. It has the highest death toll in British sporting history with 97 fatalities and 766 injured.
Evidence
Blood alcohol levels of the deceased were collected to see if the fans were drunk to
determine if their fans altered state were the reason for the deaths. This was an inaccurate
representation of the incident as alcohol did not cause the disaster. There was also CCTV and
this provided accurate representation of the events that unfolded in real time. This was also
relevant in exploring decisions made to manage crowds and open/close off stands. No bias
or opinions are possible with CCTV evidence and because of this, the independent panel
relied on CCTV evidence and as a result CCTV evidence is current. However, there were 164
tampered police statements which included over writing and strikeouts. This decreases the
accuracy of the police reports and creates an opportunity for bias towards the police.
Media Reports
The reports were biased. The media blamed the drunk fans for the disaster by creating
papers with controversial headlines. This is not accurate at all and in fact shows bias. The
reports were based on opinion (from the journalists perspective) and as they lacked
accuracy, they were not used in the court and so the media reports are not current. Later on
the news changed their tone and the Sun newspaper issued an official apology for blaming
the fans.
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