Studio Legale Internazionale

[miketesko]

Photographs taken by DI Cook (SOC) on 29 August 1985, during experiments he performed with the silencer, prior to its second submission to the Lab' and the occasion when the crucial blood evidence materialized (30 August 1985) as a result of the ballistic experts (Malcolm Fletcher) and the blood expert (John Hayward) examination of the silencer after its re-submission on that particular date, clearly show the exposed baffle plates which Cook removed from the silencer on 29 August 1985, the wrong way around upon being initially removed from the outer case of the silencer. The Baffles were inverted the wrong way around on 29 August 1985, with the jaws of each removed baffle plate facing upward in the direction of where the silencers end cap would be situated when the silencer was configured before dismantling had occurred...

These photographs which Cook had taken during his experiments on 29 August 1985, were never disclosed to Bamber, or his legal team, and they were never introduced as part of the prosecutions trial evidence...

These photographs, did not form part and parcel of the so called "MASTER COPY ALBUM" which to all intents and purposes contained 123 pictures which the police had taken as part of their investigation. Fact of the matter is, that the court only got to see 50 preselected images taken from the aforementioned album, and these 50 pictures became known as "THE COURT ALBUM". However, what only Essex police and the CPS knew at that time, was that there existed another album, a secret album, which was known to the police and the CPS, as "THE SENIOR INVESTIGATING OFFICERS ALBUM" which contained 581 photographs. It follows that Bamber and his legal team, and the court which tried him for these five murders, did not get to see or hear about 458 other photographs which the police had taken as part of its investigation, included amongst these were the pictures which DI Cook (SOC) had taken of the dismantled silencer, which showed the baffle plates inverted the wrong way around on 29 August 1985...

Why did the Essex police conceal these 458 pictures from Bamber, his legal team and the court which tried him for these murders?

For now, however, I would like to deal with the concealment and the withholding of the pictures of the dismantled silencers baffle plates, which Cook had taken on 29 August 1985...

Once Cook had removed the silencers end cap, and the top washer, they were followed by the 17 internalized baffle plates, each with their corresponding jaws facing upward in the direction of the end cap, what is particularly odd about this fact, is that by the time the silencer ended up being dismantled at the lab' by the ballistic expert and the blood expert, after its re-submission on 30 August 1985, was that these baffle plates had been turned completely on their heads, and they were facing the other way around, with their jaws facing toward the bottom end of the silencer, namely, toward the end of the silencer inverted thread which ultimately screwed onto the external thread on the end of the guns barrel...

The alteration in the positioning of the 17 baffle plates inside the silencer, from them originally being removed from the silencer on 29 August 1985, with their jaws facing upwards, to the occasion when they were removed again at the Lab' on or after 30 August 1985, when their jaws were facing downwards, had very serious implications upon the entire case...

who was responsible for changing the positioning of the baffle plates, from them facing upwards to downwards, after 29 August 1985?

Cook (SOC) removed the baffles on 29 August 1985, and at this time, they were all facing upward, and he photographed them as described...

It should also be mentioned that at the same time whilst Cook was performing these experiments, he separated the first five baffle plates from each other so that there was a distinctive gap between each of the first six baffle plates (Cook also took photographs which show the dismantled silencer in this state)...

Not suprisingly, these photographs formed part of the "SENIOR INVESTIGATING OFFICERS ALBUM" and therefore, they were not disclosed to Bamber, his legal team, or to the court which tried Bamber for these five murders...

What becomes clear when viewing these particular photographs, is the fact that none of the first five or six baffle plates had any blood present upon them - that is to say, none of the first five or six baffle plates which had their jaws facing upward at that stage, were bloodstained...

For the purpose of this explanation, we shall number the 17 baffles plates, in the following position, from top end of the silencer to the bottom end, end cap to inverted screw thread end:-

Baffles

1
2
3
4
5
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
No blood was found to be present by DI Cook (SOC) on or between the first six baffle plates, confirmed by the photographs he took during his experiments on 29 August 1985...

What Cook did next, was that he rebuilt the silencer, by placing the removed 17 baffle plates and the top washer back into the tubing of the silencer, and then he screwed the silencers end cap back into position, and presumably he submitted the re-configured silencer, back to the Lab' on the following day...

Did Cook (SOC) rebuild the silencer the wrong way around, prior to its resubmission?

Or, did someone at the Lab' alter the position of the baffle plates inside it, to enable the ballistic expert, and the blood expert, to produce their theory about BACKSPATTER to account for the presence of blood inside the silencer?

A diagram which was drawn of the dismantled silencers baffle plates at the Lab' shows them to be the opposite way around to how they had been when Cook (SOC) had dismantled them earlier...

How could this be?

How could the baffle plates inside the silencer, have jumped and turned over so that the jaws of the baffles were facing downwards, when they had originally been facing upwards?

What is more, is that according to the details contained upon the Lab' diagram, a presence of blood was found upon the first eight baffle plates closest to the end cap of the silencer...

By this stage, of course, the position of the baffle plates had been turned completely on their heads, so that effectively the position of the baffle plates had been reversed, inside the silencer, from 1 - 17, into 17 - 1, as follows:-

17
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

In accordance with the photographs which Cook (SOC) had taken on 29 August 1985, there had been no blood at all on the first six baffle plates, which now in the context of this diagram, occupied the last six positions of the baffle plates, at 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th positions...

Blood which the ballistic expert and the blood expert dealt with as a result of them dismantling the silencer, was found at the opposite end of the silencer, or at the end closest to the inverted screw thread end of the silencer, the end which screws onto the external thread on the end of the guns barrel...

Why was the blood being presented from the Lab' as having been found at the wrong end of the silencer?, supported by the diagram produced at the Lab' after 30 August 1985, which contradicted the position of the baffles shown in the photographs which Cook (SOC) had taken on 29 August 1985?

What significance, if any, did all of this mean?

Well, by presenting the baffles the wrong way round, it enabled the ballistic expert to introduce his theory of BACKSPATTER, that is to say, his account for how Sheila's blood could have got into the silencer, and this formed part of the prosecutions case to persuade the jury that Sheila was shot and killed with the silencer fitted to the end of the guns barrel, and that someone removed the silencer from the gun after she was killed, and the killer had taken the silencer all the way downstairs and hid it in the gun cupboard...

In addition, it enabled the prosecution to allege that the overall length of the weapon with the silencer fitted to the end of the guns barrel would have been much too long to allow Sheila an opportunity to shoot herself with the weapon so configured, even if she had wanted to...

These were the actual consequences of altering the position of the baffles inside the silencer, from jaws up, to jaws down...

Now somebody, altered the position of the baffle plates, from jaws up, to jaws down, strictly to enable these arguments to become valid and live issues...

It was under these conditions that the theory of BACKSPATTER became a live and very real issue and feature...

IF YOU TURN THE POSITION OF THE 17 BAFFLES BACK TO WHAT THEY ORIGINALLY WERE, ON 29 AUGUST 1985, (Jaws upward facing) then BACKSPATTER is ERADICATED...

Blood found in the baffles of the silencer once Cook (SOC) submitted the silencer back to the Lab' on 30 August 1985, must have got into the silencer by a different method or process, the details of which I shall discuss next...

[miketesko]

Fact of the matter is, that either the silencer was used in the shootings, or it was not used?

I shall start off by saying that if it was not used in the shootings, then the blood evidence and the paint evidence, is either bogus, and got into the silencer by a process of contamination, or it got there in other circumstances not associated with the killings...

For the time being, I shall put this aspect to one side, and proceed upon the basis that the silencer could have been used, and that it was used in the shootings:-

Blood ended up inside the silencer, at the end closest to the inverted thread of the silencer which screws onto the external thread on the guns barrel, or to simplify it, at the bottom end of the silencer...

In my view, there can only be one explanation worth its weight in gold to account for the presence of blood in that part of the silencer, and that is that it got there as a result of someone loading bloodstained bullets into the gun and these additionally bloodstained bullets carried blood upon them into the silencer where they became deposited upon the first few baffle plates (17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10 and 9) which they became exposed to, and prevented from traveling any further into the silencer, by the pressure generated within the design features of the silencer at the time it became active...

Upon being activated, the silencer becomes pressurized and the chambers between each of the 17 baffles are filled with swirling gases, which are designed to slow down the rate of escaping gases, as the bullet passes through the silencer and exits. This slowing down process is what prevented any blood being carried any further into the silencer and adequately accounts for why there was no blood found on any of the other baffle plates inside the silencer...

When DI Cook (SOC) dismantled the silencer on 29 August 1985, he found no blood at all on the first six baffle plates at the top end of the silencer (this would be consistent with the process I have described above - blood would become dispersed at the other end of the silencer on the baffle plates closest to the guns barrel)...

The person who loaded the gun with additional bullets, must have fired at least 10 or 11 other bullets before the need to reload the ammunition magazine of the rifle, and because of this, there was a very good chance that the shooters hands or fingers were contaminated with blood from one or more of the other victims...

Blood could have been carried into the rifle and ended up in the silencer by this process...

[miketesko]

Essex police retrieved a .22 bullet from the scene, which had a spot of blood present on the end of the bullet, and although the Lab' was unable to confirm to whom this blood had originated from, or who it belonged to, it helps to add weight to the theory I have put forward to account for how blood could have ended up inside the bottom end of the silencer...

Bloodstained contaminated bullets got put into the gun, and fired, and blood which was carried upon these additional bullets, became deposited inside the silencer at the bottom end of the silencer, closest to the guns barrel...

This would be my explanation for the presence of blood, found inside the silencer, providing the silencer had been used in the shootings...

[miketesko]

Matters are not helped in this case, by the fact that the police, and or, the Lab', or both, took part in unreported test firings of the rifle, silencer and control ammunition, and that these unreported test firings of the component parts of the weapon, took place or occurred prior to the discovery of blood inside the Silencer at the lab', as described...

I shall deal with these unreported test firings of the Rifle, silencer and control ammunition, separately...

[scraggy]

Hi Mke
I have to say I admire your determination but have you run this idea past a ballistics expert, from my limited experience with guns I would find it hard to believe that by the time a bullet had gone through the barrel of a .22 rifle at the speed and heat involved their would be any blood left on it that wasn't dry by the time it reached the silencer, unless it was huge ammounts which I find unlikely by the time they are loaded, but like I say I am certainly no expert.

All the best for the new year

[miketesko]

[quote="scraggy"]Hi Mke
I have to say I admire your determination but have you run this idea past a ballistics expert, from my limited experience with guns I would find it hard to believe that by the time a bullet had gone through the barrel of a .22 rifle at the speed and heat involved their would be any blood left on it that wasn't dry by the time it reached the silencer, unless it was huge ammounts which I find unlikely by the time they are loaded, but like I say I am certainly no expert.

All the best for the new year[/quote]
---------------------------------------------------------------
Scraggy,

Thanks for your comments and interest on this subject.

I have had some contact with an expert in firearms regarding this matter, and he feels that it would not be impossible for blood to be carried on the bullet, through the barrel, and into the silencer, by the process I have described...

More importantly, he gave a possible explanation for the presence of blood in the form of the crucial flake, which was found inside the silencer, trapped between the fifth and sixth baffle plate (between baffles 12 and 13) involving blood which had originally dried in the end of the guns barrel which came about because of BACKSPATTER when the gun minus the silencer was used in the shootings, and blood from one or more of the victims, was forced back into the end of the barrel and subsequently dried there...

If a bullet had been fired through the guns barrel, after the aforementioned blood had dried and set there, the bullet would force the bloodied flake out into the silencer along with the bullet and it could end up becoming deposited there, by a reliance upon the same dynamic pressure spoken about inside the silencer at the time of activity...

I have been advised that this could be the correct explanation for the presence of the blood flake found inside the silencer, but for this to have occurred, there would need to have been some blood found in the end of the guns barrel...

Well, for a start, it should be said that no check was made of the possibility that there was any presence of blood in the barrel of the rifle, until after 20 September 1985, when the rifle, and the silencer, and the crime scene ammunition, and the control bullets, were all submitted to the lab' for analysis and examination...

For example, on a date after that (20 September 1985) the ballistic expert (Malcolm Fletcher) produced a cloth pull-through which was placed into the barrel of the rifle, and drawn through it and subsequently examined - no blood was found to be present upon the cloth pull-through and so the ballistic expert claimed the barrel of the rifle was blood free. The cloth pull-through was given the exhibit reference MDF/1 and a corresponding Lab' reference number which as it turns out is not in keeping with the alleged date that the cloth pull-through was produced, since other Lab' exhibits bearing earlier Lab' reference numbers than 75, did not come into existence until 1st October 1985, suggestive that the Cloth pull-through MDF/1 did not actually come into existence until the same date, or afterward...

Linked to this, has been the discovery of another exhibit, MDF/100, which consists of 14 bullet cases, which form part of the file, but the existence of which has not been properly explained by either the police, or the ballistic expert, but the corresponding Lab' reference number for MDF/100, falls in line with other exhibit reference numbers given to items which came into existence on or before 20 September 1985...

A comprehensive check has been made to try and identify the existence of the missing exhibits, MDF/2 to MDF/99, without success, and more importantly, there are no missing or unaccounted for Lab' item reference numbers which could be attributed to any such missing exhibits in the Lab' file. This suggests for the possibility, that there were no other missing items, MDF/2 to MDF/99, respectively...

It looks more and more likely, that the 14 bullet cases, were originally. marked bearing the identifying reference MDF/1, but that this was substituted and made into MDF/100, simply by adding two 00's, so that the cloth pull-through which came into existence much later than declared, could be presented as MDF/1, the switch only detectable because of the reference to the later Lab' reference number, which did not and could not have come into existence until on or after 1st October 1985...

This substitution only occurring because control bullets had been fired through the rifle and the silencer, unofficially, from as early as 12 September 1985, and at that stage any blood which may have been present in the end of the guns barrel, however small, could have been and probably was forced out of the rifles barrel and into the silencer where it was subsequently recovered from...

I have examined the Lab' file, and in particular, the GENERAL EXAMINATION SHEETS for the 25 bullet cases, and it becomes clear by reference to information contained on at least 11 Lab' records, that there had been an earlier unofficial test firing of the rifle, silencer, and control ammunition, which took place before the official test firing of the same, on and after, 20 September 1985...

In a nutshell, there were two distinct periods when the rifle, silencer and control ammunition was test fired :-

(1) the unofficial test firing of the gun, silencer and control ammunition, which occurred on or about 12 September 1985

(2) the Official test firing of the above, from and after, 20 September 1985...

Information contained upon at least 11 GENERAL EXAMINATION RECORDS for the 25 crime scene bullets, contain a reference to marks being compared between control ammunition fired through the gun, against markings on the corresponding crime scene bullets, which took place on the following dates, 12th, 13th, 18th and 19th September 1985, which is conclusive proof that there must have been an earlier test firing of the gun, silencer and control ammunition, which took place prior to the date (20 September 1985) of the official test firing of the same...

For some reason the unofficial test firing of the gun, silencer, and control ammunition, which took place prior to 20 September 1985, has been swept under the carpet as though it has no significance at all in this investigation, but on the contrary it does...

The significance of these earlier test firings of the gun, silencer, and control ammunition around 12 September 1985, establishes with certainty that if there had been any dried blood on the inside of the guns barrel at the time these unofficial test firings had taken place, it would almost certainly have been blasted out along with the bullet and could have become deposited inside the silencer...

The ballistic expert and the police who conducted these unofficial test firings would have known later that they could have inadvertently contaminated the silencer with dried blood from the guns barrel, and as a result, the unofficial test firings of the gun, silencer, and control ammunition, which took place before 20 September 1985, were swept under the carpet, as described...

As I say, the unofficial test firings of the gun, silencer, and control ammunition, and the discrepancy between the exhibit reference, MDF/100 and MDF/1, and the Lab' reference of the same being contradictory and at odds with the date they could have come into existence, could be linked to the presence of how that small flake of dried blood ended up inside the silencer...

If true, it would help to explain how blood ended up inside the silencer, and that the silencer may not necessarily have been fitted to the guns barrel at the time of the shootings, but that blood got there by a process of contamination...

In a nutshell the end of the guns barrel may have been in contact with the surface of the victims skin, or in close contact, and blood could have been forced back into the end of the guns barrel by a process of BACKSPATTER, at the time they were shot - this same blood, which had dried over a period of days or even weeks, was later blasted out of the barrel of the gun, into the silencer, at the time of these unofficial test firings of the gun and silencer and control ammunition, which took place or occurred, on or close to, 12 September 1985...

Bamber, and his legal team, were prevented from placing this evidence before the court which tried him for these murders, which they might well have come to accept as being the correct interpretation for how blood found its way into the silencer, and that it was a sufficient explanation to negate the alternative theory that the blood got into the silencer at the time the victims had been shot and killed, and that the killer had removed the silencer from the end of the guns barrel after Sheila was shot and killed, and that the silencer was then hidden and concealed in the gun cupboard downstairs in the office...

To be specific, the information and evidence I have alluded to in this post should not have been hidden away and concealed, by the police, the Lab' and the CPS...

How can Bamber have received a fair trial in view of all this happening?