Echo to reveal new evidence and exclusive comments from Jeremy Bamber in prison
Jeremy Bamber remains in prison over the north Essex massacre, convicted of shooting to death his mum, dad, sister and six-year-old twin nephews.
But after almost four decades inside, he continues to protest his innocence.
Our stories – available online only to subscribers – will include:
*An exploration of the evidence which convicted Bamber in 1986, and details that have since undermined the prosecution case
*Exclusive new comments from Bamber, accusing the miscarriage of justice watchdog of 'covering up for Essex Police'
*Allegations that Essex Police shot Bamber's sister by accident, then framed him for murder to cover it up
*How an Essex Police whistleblower accused colleagues of faking evidence against Bamber
*An interview with a lie detector expert who tested Bamber in prison and is convinced he is innocent
By subscribing to the Echo, you help to fund in-depth, investigative reporting that holds local bodies, like Essex Police, to account.
Subscribe for just £6 for 6 months in our Summer Flash Sale
Readers who want to subscribe to our news site can enjoy an exclusive offer of £6 for 6 months or save over 50 per cent off an annual subscription during our limited-time promotion this summer.
In addition to unlimited access to articles such as our exclusive Jeremy Bamber interview, as well as fewer ads, subscribers can also enjoy monthly savings on big brands through the reader rewards scheme and the chance to win luxury prizes with monthly subscriber competitions.
Our latest subscription offer ends on August 18. For more details and to subscribe, see https://www.echo-news.co.uk/subscribe/.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Accused serial killer Jesse Lee Calhoun indicted on fourth murder, officials give update on case
PORTLAND, Ore (KOIN) — Alleged serial killer is now accused of killing a fourth woman, officials in Multnomah County announced on Tuesday. A brief history of serial killers in Oregon A grand jury has indicted Calhoun for the November 20, 2022, murder of Kristin Smith, who was 22 when she died. During the press conference, Kristin Smith's mother, Melissa Smith, said she was 'Overwhelmed with emotion.' 'I stayed strong doing all I could trying to save my daughter,' Melissa said. 'And it was just unbearable to find out it was too late and needed help finding her. And I did everything I could to try to get answers and fight and search.' Melissa credited her friends and family for continuing to keep Kristin's memory alive as she searched for answers. She also thanked the other victims' families and detectives for their help in seeking justice in the case. Calhoun was previously accused of murdering three women, Charity Lynn Perry, Joanna Speaks and Bridget Leanne Webster, after their bodies were discovered in Oregon and Washington two years ago. In April 2023, Speaks' body was found at an abandoned barn in Ridgefield, Washington. A few weeks later, Perry's body was found near Ainsworth State Park in East Multnomah County, and just days after that, Webster's body was discovered near Mill Creek in Polk County. In May of 2024, Calhoun was indicted for the murders, as he was already in custody at the time for parole violations. Previously, Calhoun had been in prison after he was charged with three counts of unauthorized use of a vehicle, assaulting a public safety officer and first-degree burglary. In 2021, then-Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed a commutation to provide clemency for certain prisoners and Calhoun met the criteria, so he was released. 'Arrival in Portland is imminent': City braces for destructive invasive emerald ash borer The clemency was later revoked by Gov. Tina Kotek in 2023. Calhoun pleaded not guilty to the murders in June 2024. Calhoun has also been named as a person of interest in the death of Ashley Real, 22, though he has not been indicted in that case. 'Every single person who never forgot about these five women, our family, our angels, they're all taken too soon,' Melissa said. Multnomah County DA Vasquez said he's determined to work with Clackamas County investigators on the ongoing Real case. 'That is an extremely important case to us, one that is currently under investigation,' Vasquez said. Diana Allen, the mother of Charity Perry — one of Calhoun's alleged victims — shared a message for others still searching for answers. 'Don't give up hope. It hurts so bad, but it's so precious. You cannot let it go,' she said. A trial is expected to occur in 2027. Until then, the DA's office said they still have a lot of work to do on the case. Watch the Multnomah County DA's entire press conference below: Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Man who was living off-grid to be sentenced for murder of dogwalker
A man who murdered a grandmother on her morning dog walk in a 'vicious and brutal attack' while he was living off-grid to avoid recall to prison is to be sentenced. Roy Barclay, 56, subjected 57-year-old Anita Rose to 'numerous kicks, stamps and blows' as she walked her springer spaniel Bruce in Brantham, Suffolk, on July 24 2024. The mother of six was found by passers-by but died in hospital four days later. Barclay, who denied murder but was found guilty following an earlier trial at Ipswich Crown Court, is due to be sentenced at the same court on Wednesday. Ms Rose's eldest daughter, who gave her name as Jess, said after Barclay's conviction last month that 'criminals cannot remain at large'. 'There's too much at stake and our communities need protecting,' she said. She continued: 'We need to make sure that our communities are safe and that people are monitored, that criminals are taken back to prison when they break the terms of their probation.' Barclay had previously been convicted and jailed over a 2015 attack on a pensioner. Prosecutors said this bore similarities to the attack on Ms Rose. Barclay had been released from prison in February 2020 but had not been living at a fixed address. He had been wanted on recall at the time of his attack on Ms Rose over a breach of his licence conditions. It is understood that the Probation Service issued a recall notice for Barclay following a breach of his licence conditions. Suffolk Police said there would be a review of information-sharing processes. Judge Martyn Levett warned Barclay, after jurors returned their guilty verdict: 'The sentence is one that inevitably is going to be life in prison, and the length of it is going to be very lengthy.' Prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC earlier told the court that Barclay 'lived mostly in the countryside, wandering the fields and lanes, sleeping in various makeshift camps'. 'He lived off-grid because for two years, Roy Barclay had been unlawfully at large,' said Mr Paxton. 'He had been on the run trying to avoid the police and authorities to try and avoid being recalled back to prison.' Jurors were told that Barclay had previously pleaded guilty, over a separate incident in 2015, to grievous bodily harm with intent over an attack on an 82-year-old man in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex. The pensioner, Leslie Gunfield, had told Barclay that he would inform security about him going through rubbish bins at a Co-op supermarket, the court heard. Mr Gunfield was left with serious injuries to his head and required 10 titanium plates for fractures he suffered after being attacked by Barclay. He was found with a dog lead wrapped around his foot, which the prosecution said was similar to the way Ms Rose's body was found, with a dog lead 'tightly' wrapped around her leg.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Byron Black executed for triple murder despite concerns of disabilities, heart device
Tennessee has executed a man for the 1988 murder of his girlfriend and her two young daughters despite arguments that he suffered from intellectual disabilities and concerns that his heart device would shock him back to life during the lethal injection. The state executed Byron Black on Tuesday, Aug. 5, after Gov. Bill Lee declined requests from attorneys, advocacy groups and even some Republicans to intervene. He was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. CT. "This is hurting so bad," Black said during the execution, according to news media witnesses who saw him die and reported that he showed signs of distress. On March 28, 1988, Angela Clay and her eldest daughter, 9-year-old Latoya, were found shot dead in bed. Clay's other daughter, 6-year-old Lakeisha, was found dead on the floor in another bedroom with multiple gunshot wounds. Black became the 28th inmate executed in the U.S. this year, a 10-year high, with at least nine more executions scheduled. He's the second inmate to be put to death in Tennessee this year after a five-year break in executions in the state. Black's case stands out for two reasons. What his legal team said was an "undisputed intellectual disability" had many calling for a reprieve, including some Republicans. And his attorneys raised serious questions about whether Black's implanted heart device would cause "a prolonged and torturous execution" in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti told USA TODAY in a statement that expert testimony "refutes the suggestion that Black would suffer severe pain if executed" and that the state was seeking "to hold Black accountable for his horrific crimes." Here's what you need to know about the execution, the crime and the issues surrounding the case. What happened during Byron Black's execution? Multiple members of the news media who witnessed Black's execution said he did appear to show signs of distress and said that he was in pain. His spiritual adviser, who was with him throughout the process, told him: "I'm so sorry." Black declined to say any last words in the death chamber but gave his attorney a message directed to his friends and family to deliver afterward. "I love you and I won't never forget you," Black said, according to Henry. "All of our relationships have been very special. It was my pleasure in meeting everybody and the way we connected with each other. God bless you and thank you." About his mother, Black said he knows what will happen when he sees her in Heaven, according to Henry: "She will run to me and pull me in (her) arms and say, 'Son, I've been be waiting for you." Henry had harsh words for the government for allowing the execution to proceed: "What happened here was the result of pure, unbridled bloodlust and cowardice," she said. "It was the brutal and unchecked abuse of government power ... Today the state of Tennessee killed a gentle, kind, fragile, intellectually disabled man in violation of the laws of our country simply because they could." She added that "we are witnessing the erosion of the rule of law and every principle of human decency on which this country was founded. Today it was Byron. Tomorrow it will be someone you care about." USA TODAY was reaching out to Tennessee officials for comment. What was Byron Black convicted of? Black was convicted of fatally shooting his girlfriend, Angela Clay, and her two daughters: 9-year-old Latoya and 6-year-old Lakeisha. They were murdered on March 27, 1988. At the time, Black had been on work release from prison for shooting Clay's estranged husband and her daughters' father, Bennie Clay, in 1986. Prosecutors told jurors at trial that Black killed Angela Clay because he was jealous of her ongoing relationship with her ex. Investigators believe that Angela Clay and Latoya were shot as they slept, while Lakeisha appeared to have tried to escape after being wounded in the chest and pelvis. Bennie Clay previously told The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network, he believes Black killed the girls to spite him. "My kids, they were babies," he told the newspaper. "They were smart, they were gonna be something. They never got the chance." More recently, he told The Tennessean he planned to attend the execution, though he said he has forgiven Black. 'God has a plan for everything,' he told the newspaper. 'He had a plan when he took my girls. He needed them more than I did, I guess.' Judge ordered Byron Black's heart device removed before execution On July 22, a judge ordered that a heart device implanted in Black needed to be removed at a hospital the morning of his execution, a development that appeared to complicate matters as a Nashville hospital declined to participate. But the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the judge's order, and the U.S. Supreme Court backed that up, clearing the way for Black to be executed despite the heart device. His attorneys argued that the device, designed to revive the heart, could lead to "a prolonged and torturous execution." "It's horrifying to think about this frail old man being shocked over and over as the device attempts to restore his heart's rhythm even as the State works to kill him," Henry said in a statement. The state argued that Black's heart device would not cause him pain. Robin, Maher, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, told USA TODAY that an inmate being executed with a defibrillator implant was "a completely unprecedented issue." But, she added, "one I fear we will see again as states move toward executing aging prisoners on death row." Tennessee governor declined to intervene With their arguments over Black's heart device at the end of the legal road, his attorneys re-focused their attention on his intellectual disabilities during his final days and hours, calling on Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to stop the execution and prevent "a grotesque spectacle." Citing Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and exposure to toxic lead, Black's attorneys said mental impairments meant that he always had to live with and rely on family. More recently on death row, his attorneys said that other inmates had to "do his everyday tasks for him, including cleaning his cell, doing his laundry, and microwaving his food." "If ever a case called for the Governor to grant clemency or, at the very least, a reprieve, it is this one," Henry said in a statement. The director of Tennessee Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty said that she supports accountability for people who commit heinous crimes, but "the law is clear that we do not execute people with intellectual disability." "Governor Lee can insist on accountability while ensuring that the law is also followed. A situation such as this is exactly why governors have clemency power," Jasmine Woodson said in a statement. "Mr. Black has spent over three decades in prison for this crime and will never be released. As a conservative, I believe that he should remain behind bars, but he should not be executed." Lee's office did not respond to repeated requests for comment from USA TODAY. In his statement to USA TODAY, Attorney General Skrmetti pushed back at findings that Black was intellectually disabled and said that "over the decades, courts have uniformly denied Black's eleven distinct attempts to overturn his murder convictions and death sentence." Angela Clay's family long sought justice Angela Clay's sister, Linette Bell, said in a statement after the execution that it "was a long time coming." "Thirty-seven years is too long," she said. "His family is going through the same thing now that we went through 37 years ago. I can't say I'm sorry, because we never got an apology. He never apologized, and he never admitted it, even on his dying bed ... He took it to his grave with him, and he knows he did it." Clay's mother, 88-year-old Marie Bell, thanked God for "letting me be here to see this closure." "I hope that we can be in peace from this day forward," she added. Outside the prison ahead of the execution, Angela Clay's niece, Nicoule Davis, told The Tennessean that "it's time for a celebration." What was Byron Black's last meal? Black's last meal was pizza with mushrooms and sausage, donuts, and butter pecan ice cream. Byron Black's execution is second in the state this year Black is the second inmate to be executed in Tennessee this year following a five-year break in the death penalty in the state. The break followed an independent review that found the Tennessee Department of Corrections was not consistently testing execution drugs for potency and purity. Nationwide, nine more executions are scheduled for this year, with more expected to be carried out as governors sign more death warrants. The next execution is Kayle Barrington Bates in Florida on Aug. 19 for the 1982 stabbing death of a 24-year-old woman named Janet White, who was kidnapped from her office and taken to the woods before Bates beat her, tried to rape her and ultimately killed her. Contributing: Kelly Puente, The Tennessean Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tennessee executes Byron Black amid concerns of disabilities, pain