Point me to Julie’s evidence you think she ‘watered down’
She was clearly in a toxic relationship
Julie, and Brett Collins, recalled incidents where Bamber displayed violence towards her, others and inanimate objects
Excerpt for one of Julies witness statements
No actual evidence that she watered anything down, but when she met with Lewisham police who were going to take her to WHF on the morning of the murders, Julie Mugfords response to being told the whole family was dead, and it looks like Sheila did it....Julie Mugfords immediate verbal response was something like: Yes, Sheila had been acting strangely for a week or so.
Not even an 'oh my god', no hands up to face in shock. Nothing.
That response might be the kind of thing you say if you had scripted an answer before hand, possibly designed to add credence to the idea that Sheila was unstable and capable of killing her family. To me, it's suspicious. And the police officer who witnessed it also thought it was a strange reaction. And CAL thought it important enough to put in her book.
There was no shocked reaction, or even surprise. Then in the car and completely unprompted she said that she hoped she didn't have to see any dead bodies. She was as calm as you like when she said it.
It's just a strange response. In reality, Sheila hadn't been acting strange in the weeks up to the murders. So why did Julie Mugford say it? Where did that sentence come from?
Bamber may have displayed violence against Mugford, but she gave as good as she got. She wasn't scared of him. When they split up she smashed a mirror in Sheila's flat and hit Bamber, which is criminal damage and common assault on her part. Both Mugford and Bamber tell the same story about that incident. Julie then gets pinned down on the bed by Bamber, and she says to him, I'll tell the police. That last bit is her version of the story. She was happy to hit back at Bamber, and Bamber let her hit him back.
Mugford's official story say's to me that she was Bamber's sounding board. Bamber was planning a massive crime and he would have needed someone to talk about it too. He couldn't organise and plan it without confiding in someone. She was that someone.
How much more than that Julie might have been, will never be known. But there was suspicious behaviour from her. The events that are known make it plausible that she helped him organise it, and that therefore she was a fully fledged participant. There's just nowhere near enough evidence to prove it. But it is plausible.
