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Killer loses privacy complaint over Sky documentary

By PA Mediapoint

Communications watchdog Ofcom rejected a complaint from convicted killer Jeremy Bamber that a documentary about his crimes infringed his privacy and treated him unfairly.

Bamber was given a whole-life tariff in 1986 after he was convicted of murdering his wealthy adopted parents, June and Neville, his sister Sheila Caffell and her six-year-old twin sons Daniel and Nicholas at their farmhouse in Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Essex.

He has always protested his innocence and claims his schizophrenic sister shot her family before turning the gun on herself in a remote Essex farmhouse.

Bamber complained after Sky broadcast ‘Killing Mum And Dad: The Jeremy Bamber Story’, which examined the police investigation into the crimes.

It included archive footage and photographs of Bamber and contributions from family members, acquaintances, journalists who covered the case and a forensic psychologist Kerry Danes.

The report stated Bamber complained Danes “unfairly and inaccurately portrayed him as a psychopath” despite never having met him.

He also complained the programme “discussed at length, and ridiculed, intimate details about his sexual orientation which had no relevance to the offence of which he was convicted”.

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The watchdog’s report found that “although Mr Bamber had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the circumstances, Ofcom concluded that the broadcaster’s right to freedom of expression and the genuine public interest in examining the evidence against Mr Bamber and the possible motivation for the murders outweighed the intrusion into his privacy”.

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