Jeremy Bamber murder case timeline

Jeremy Bamber, the man convicted of killing five members of his family in Essex, has won a landmark human rights case.

Jeremy Bamber has been behind bars for more than 26 years for shooting his wealthy adopted parents, June and Nevill, his sister Sheila Caffell and her six-year-old twin sons Daniel and Nicholas at their Essex farmhouse in Tolleshunt D'Arcy between Maldon and Colchester.

The 52-year-old was given a whole-life tariff after being convicted of the murders in October 1986 but he has always protested his innocence and claims his schizophrenic sister Ms Caffell shot her family before turning the gun on herself in a remote Essex farmhouse.

In 2009, Bamber lost a Court of Appeal challenge against the order that he must die behind bars. He has twice lost appeals against conviction.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission reached a provisional decision not to refer his case back to the Court of Appeal in February last year despite claims by his legal team that they had new evidence that could overturn his conviction.

The remote farmhouse at Tolleshunt D'Arcy where Jeremy Bamber killed his family Credit: ITV Anglia

  • August 1985 - White House Farm shootings take place in thevillage of Tolleshunt D’Arcy. Initiallydetectives treated the crime as a murder-suicide with Sheila Caffell suspectedof killing her family before turning the gun on herself

  • September 1986 - Jeremy Bamber arrested and charged with murder

  • October 1986 - Bamber found guilty at Chelmsford crown court

  • October 1986 - The Home Secretary Douglas Hurd calls for an inquiry for the police handling of the murder inquiry. The subsequent report makes 18 recommendations

Five members of the same family were murdered at a remote farmhouse in Tolleshunt D'Arcy in August 1985 Credit: ITV News Anglia

  • March 1989 - Bamber appeals against his conviction on the grounds that the judge unfairly summed up the case. He loses.

  • December 1994 - Bamber's minimum term of 25 years is expended to a whole life tariff meaning he will die in prison.

  • March 2001 - Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) refers verdict back to Court of Appeal.

  • December 2002 - Court of Appeal upholds Bamber's murder conviction.

  • May 2004 - Bamber is taken to hospital after his throat is slashed by another prisoner at HMP Full Sutton near York.

Jeremy Bamber was convicted of killing his adoptive parents Nevill and June along with his sister and her six-year-old twin boys

  • May 2008 - Bamber loses an appeal at the High Court against the whole-life prison term which was later upheld in the Court of Appeal.

  • February 2011 - The Criminal Cases Review Commission rejects a bid by Bamber's lawyers to refer the case back to the Court of Appeal after they submit new evidence.

  • January 2012 - Bamber and two other killers appeal against the whole-life prison tariff to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. They lost and it was referred to the Grand Chamber.

  • July 2013 - Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights rules that whole life sentences "amount to inhuman and degrading treatment." The panel of 17 judges said: "In finding a violation in this case, however, the court did not intend to give the applicants any prospect of imminent release."