A few weeks ago I wrote a lengthy email to Jeremy Bamber, who has been in prison for nearly 41 years after being convicted of murdering five family members. Bamber has always protested his innocence, and the late Guardian prison correspondent Eric Allison and I have frequently written about Bamber and the White House Farm murders in the Guardian over the years.
In the email, I asked about aspects of his case as I often do, chatted about a football match I’d been to with my younger daughter at the weekend, mentioned that I’d been out for lunch with a forensics expert, and said we had an amazing blossom tree across the road that had just come into full bloom. I also emailed a photo of the blossom tree.