Barbara Wilson

Uploaded Summer 2015

Barbara Joyce Wilson had been the secretary at White House Farm since 1979. Her duties included sorting the orders, bills and organising the wages for the farm workers.

Since Jeremy’s trial Barbara Wilson has made numerous claims regarding Jeremy both in statements made during Police enquiries and in televised documentary programmes which are a complete manipulation of the truth at best and at worst lies.

In a television documentary, “Slaughter at the Farm. Countdown to murder” aired on Channel 5 on 14th November 2013 Barbara Wilson was interviewed at length and gave her version of events. Barbara Wilson deviated from the evidence she had given on her Police witness statements of 1985 and offered a completely different version of events.

The claims made by Barbara Wilson are discussed below:

Omitted from Statements

Essex police had not taken statements from a large number of Sheila's friends. A handwritten note by DS Stan Jones[1] states that he should take a statement from Barbara Wilson regarding her relaying to Ann Eaton that Sheila had told her that, "all people are bad and should be killed." Curiously, Wilson's statements show that she was never asked if Sheila had told her this and there is no other trace of this event in the statements of Ann Eaton.

June’s Bicycle

In her witness statement dated 5th October 1985,[2] Wilson described June showing her the second hand bicycle she had just bought. Wilson commented upon the immaculate condition of the bike and stated that it looked almost new. She then went on to say:

“Jeremy came into the yard and she [June] called over to him and said something like ‘Jeremy could you look at my bicycle it has a squeak’.”

She goes on to say that Jeremy rode the bike around the yard and explained to June that there was nothing wrong with it and it was fine. Next she described the fun side of Jeremy as he was riding the bike:

“He was quite able to ride the bicycle and rode it as if it were a motorcycle, he himself making the noises of an engine.”

By the time she recalled the same incident to the media she had inserted a sinister twist on events, she told the media:

“Mrs Bamber had a bicycle he [Jeremy] got the bicycle and he would ride round and round in circles intimidating her trying to knock her with the bicycle.”

Perhaps it would not have had quite the same dramatic effect, or the desired distortion of Jeremy’s character for the audience if Wilson had given the true version of events.

Fear of Jeremy

Barbara Wilson has spoken in considerable detail since the trial about her apparent fear of Jeremy after the murders. None of which is discussed in any of her pre-trial witness statements. In testimony made to the Police post 1991, and in interviews with the media she states that her fears were considerable and that she was scared Jeremy would climb into her house through a window and kill her.

“I thought he would come after me and kill me. I know it is easy to say this now after all these years and after he has been convicted but it was a very real fear then.” [3]

If there had been any truth behind her apparent fears then why did she not inform Essex Police as soon as possible?

Jeremy and his Parents

During an interview for the 1986 Dickinson Enquiry she was asked specifically about the relationship Jeremy had with his parents:[4]

“Q. Ever say anything nasty about parents, sister or twins?

A. No, only workwise, main criticism was against father about the

….farm. Never heard him say anything bad at all.

Q. Nothing like that he hated them?

A. No.

Q. Anything violent towards them?

A. No, nothing.”

It is again an unsettling fact that after Trial and during statements given in 1991 to the City of London Police, Wilson stated that Jeremy would go out of his way to annoy his parents. One factor she raised was that Jeremy started to wear make-up. She also stated this to the aforementioned Channel 5 television programme. It would appear that Wilson considered for a male to wear make-up would be a slur against their character. Wilson connected cosmetics with the psychological profile of a murderer; a connection that is inaccurate and completely unacceptable. Her persistence in trying to denigrate Jeremy in this way says more about Wilson’s bigotry than Jeremy’s character. In the 1980’s, the age of the New Romantics and Punk Rock music, it was common for boys and young men to wear make-up. There was nothing wrong with this as it was just a case of defining their character and making them feel good about themselves, exactly the same as with women and girls.

Nevill had a Premonition

Barbara Wilson made no less than 14 statements to the police before Jeremy’s trial all dated 16.12.85, 05.10.85, 06.10.85, 11.10.85, 17.09.85, 19.09.85, 22.11.85, another on 05.10.85, and more on 08.11.85, 12.09.85, 16.11.85, 25.10.85, 26.11.85, and 27.09.85, 29.09.86. In more than one statement she even described Jeremy as "a likeable young man" and she probably got on better with him than she did her own son.

Out of all of these pre-trial statements she never mentioned at any time that Nevill had told her that Jeremy had intended to kill him or anything which could be interpreted as such. Yet in her television interview for the Channel 5 documentary “Slaughter at the Farm. Countdown to murder,” and in the witness testimony she gave in 1991 to the City of London Police, she claimed Nevill Bamber had ‘foreseen his death’ and she interpreted his behaviour as being a sign that he knew Jeremy was going to kill him. Oddly though, Nevill Bamber, a Justice of the Peace didn’t act on his belief. One wonders why that might be.

In her hand written statement dated 12th September 1985 she described the fact that Nevill had recently purchased two plots of land and stated:

“He seemed to be thinking about later in life when he retired”

No premonition of impending doom, just a responsible man who was making plans for his retirement from farming life and another contradiction on her ‘premonition’ story.

It is our opinion that Nevill had no premonition whatsoever that he might die in the near future and Barbara Wilson didn't mention anything about this at trial. It is only in her statement to the City of London Police on 28.06.91, some six years later, that she invents a 'premonition'. This tale was considered by the City of London police 'not to be suitable' for her final statement. It appears the police pick and choose the content of their statements and details of this ‘revelation’ are only present in an officer’s report. We suggest that if Nevill Bamber had told an employee such a thing, why did this employee not mention this at trial to assist in the conviction of Jeremy Bamber? And why did Wilson not go to the police with this ‘story’ on the 7th of August 1985? This invention emerges creatively in the Roger Wilkes book and on various television programmes and we will leave you to make your own conclusions about why this story has been intensified for various forms of media. Since the death of Nevill Bamber rumours circulated that Wilson’s relationship with Nevill was one of unrequited love on her part.

Nevill Bamber’s Health

Barbara Wilson also failed to mention to Essex Police in 1985 that she had any worries or concerns regarding Nevill’s health, yet from 1991 onwards she suddenly recalled:

“He was becoming very deep in thought and there came a time about 6 weeks before he was killed, when I thought he looked physically ill as if he had a heavy weight on his shoulders and all the sparkle had gone out of him.”

In 2013 she expanded on this even further during her televised interview when she claimed that she had such concerns stating:

“For several weeks he looked really drawn and ill he seemed to stoop and seemed to have the worries of the world on his shoulders. And I asked him what was wrong I thought perhaps he might have cancer or some bad illness.”

As we have said Wilson’s concerns over Nevill Bamber’s health did not appear in any pre-trial witness testimony nor in the witness testimony of anyone else. This could have been for two very specific reasons.

1. It was a pure invention by Barbara Wilson for the benefit of the viewing public and the City of London Police.

2. Or could it be that any reference to Nevill being ill was edited out of all the pre-trial witness statements as Essex Police realised that their argument that Sheila could not have overpowered Nevill would be seriously undermined.

Rats

Wilson told the television cameras:

“Jeremy put this bag in my car and when I went to get into it, it moved and scraped about and he’d put rats in my car.”

We suggest this was another ridiculous invention created for dramatic purposes. It is not feasible that Jeremy could have or would have caught live rats, placed them in a bag, and put them into Barbara Wilson’s car.

Authors: Y. Hartley and S. Hanover

[1] Holmes 45/22 DS Jones, hand written police actions. PDF

[2] AF-SP-396-03) B J Wilson (05-10-85) HW PDF, Pg. 4

[3] AR-06-03) Wilson (Barbara) 03.07.91 (COLP) PDF, Pg. 4 & 5.

[4] AF-04-13) Wilson (B) - 29.09.86 record of interview PDF, Pg. 2.