I doubt very much that these are cigarette burns. These are probably burns from the barrel of the rifle used by Bamber. I believe that Nevil was frogmarched down the stairs by Bamber for two reasons; firstly he wanted Nevil in to be found in the kitchen in order to back up his story of receiving a distress call from his father. Secondly I think Bamber had run out of bullets in the intial attack in the main bedroom Bamber fired off more bullets than expected and simply ran out. This was to be Bamber's first miscalculation. We must remember that the bullets for the gun were next to the telephone downstairs in the kitchen. The ONLY way for Bamber to complete both tasks would be for him to force Nevil downstairs at the point of the barrel fitted with a silencer the tip of which was now scolding hot from discharging the contents of a whole magazine. Nevil was viciously manhandled at barrel point down the stairs, bleeding profusely from wounds he had already received in the bedroom. It was now that Bamber's second miscalculation occurred. Nevil made a grab for the gun and managed to get a firm grip of the barrel or silencer. It was at this point I believe the struggle - one for life the other for death - occurred. Bamber fearing that Nevil could escape and raise the alarm desparately tried to wrench the gun from Nevil's grasp. The two men obviously were pulling the rifle between them to-and-fro, leaving the kitchen furniture in some disarray and scratch marks on the mantlepiece. I believe that Nevil now weakening from his wounds released his grip slightly and Bamber managed to wrest it from him. It was here that Bamber upturned the empty rifle and swung it like club making contact with Nevils' head, jaw and arms so viciously that the wooden stock of the gun broke, knocking the beleagured farmer unconscious. It was at this point that Bamber has the precious seconds to reach the kitchen counter and reload the rifle. He then walked calmly up to the motionless figure and coldly pumped four more shots into him as he slumped at a jaunty angle on the back of the chair, killing him instantly. In a final gory act, Nevil's head fell forward in to the coal scuttle into the position where he was later found by police.
This gruesome event was the precursor of what was the come for the rest of the family. Nevil, I suspect was the first to die, although not the first to be shot. That terrible honour belonged to June. Rather chillingly both of Bamber's parents would have been aware of exactly whom their attacker was - Both were not killed instantly and they both would have looked into his evil eyes, and both would have realised exactly what they had brought into their home and would have suffered a terrible, agonising death at the hands of the arrogant, psychopathic, greedy ingrate they gave a home to.