don't let this guy fool you. it would have been impossible for his sister to have killed herself b/c she was simply not tall enough to aim the rifle at herself and extend her reach to the trigger. the detective in charge of the inevstigation it couldn't do it either. bamber didn't think of that.
he's guilty as homemade sin.
Sorry, it is not as simple as that.
It would have been impossible only if the silencer were attached.
At trial, it was established that there was blood in the silencer belonging to Sheila. This implied Sheila was killed with the silencer attached. Therefore she could not have killed herself, because it was impossible for her to fire the rifle at herself with the silencer attached. (In fact, she wouldn't have been able to take the silencer off and put it in the cupboard, if she had just killed herself, so the issue of it being impossible for her to kill herself with the silencer attached doesn't really add anything.)
The evidence about Sheila's blood at trial was based on blood group analysis, not DNA testing. The forensic expert agreed that his results could also be explained by a combination of the parents' blood, but he dismissed that as unlikely.
The basis for the appeal in 2002 was that DNA technology had come along, and an analysis of the silencer showed there was definitely none of Sheila's DNA present. There were two DNA signals. The main one pointed to June Bamber (the mother) (3500 times more likely to come from her than from a random female). The other was very faint and pointed to an unknown male.
Now, if there was none of Sheila's DNA in the silencer, then it seemed she
wasn't killed with the silencer in place. Therefore she
could have used the rifle on herself.
However, the judges at the 2002 appeal decided that the absence of Sheila's DNA did not discredit the evidence of the expert who found probable evidence of Sheila's blood in the silencer at the original trial. The flake of blood the expert tested was destroyed by the police in 1996 (contrary to their procedures). The judges said that, even though there may have been none of Sheila's blood or DNA in the silencer in the new tests, maybe what was tested before did come from her.
I think the judge's argument in this respect is disingenuous and a piece of sophistry. If the blood deposit in the silencer was Sheila's and
not a combination of June and Neville Bamber's, as testified by the original expert, it does not stand to reason that the original swabbing would have removed every last trace of Sheila's DNA but still left some of June Bamber's and an unknown male's. I mean come on. If Sheila's blood was in the silencer, there should be some of her DNA in there now, not that of two other people whose blood was supposedly not found.