Husband who stabbed wife to death and manipulated their young child to maintain his web of lies jailed
Robert Rhodes had coached the couple’s child to claim he had acted in self-defence
A husband who stabbed his wife to death has been jailed for life after their child came forward with new evidence to reveal his plan to “get rid of mummy”.
Robert Rhodes, 52, murdered Dawn in the kitchen of their family home in 2016 after discovering she had been having an affair with a work colleague.
In order to cover up his crimes, he wounded their young child, who was under the age of 10, and manipulated them into helping him by pretending that Dawn had been the one to attack them both, and he had acted in self-defence.
His ploy initially succeeded as he was acquitted of murder following his Old Bailey trial in 2017, but his web of lies came undone after his child confessed the true events to a therapist.
Giving their victim impact statement, the child said: “The traumatic experience Robert Rhodes has put me through will never go away. The scar Robert Rhodes left me with when he sliced open my forearm will never go away. My scar is a constant reminder of what Robert Rhodes has done to me.”
Rhodes has now been jailed for a minimum term of 29 years and six months following a rare double jeopardy trial at Inner London Crown Court, where he was also found guilty of two counts of perjury for false evidence at his Old Bailey trial and in the Family Courts in 2018, perverting the course of justice, and child cruelty.
At the start of the hearing, Ms Justice Ellenbogen revealed that Rhodes had refused to leave his prison cell to attend the hearing.
“He maintains his innocence in these matters and has refused to attend,” defence barrister Nina Grahame KC told the court.
Describing his actions as “wicked and callous”, the judge said that he could now add “cowardice” to his other “truly malignant characteristics”.
Jurors heard that the murder occurred on 2 June after Rhodes filed for divorce following the breakdown of the couple’s marriage. In the preceding months, internet searches revealed Rhodes had been “obsessed” with Dawn’s new relationship, making repeated searches for her new partner and for ways to hack into her devices. He had also searched for household poisons, classified drugs that had the capacity to kill and ways to sedate or hypnotise a person.
On 2 June, police received a 999 call from the child – who cannot be named for legal reasons – at 7.34pm during which Rhodes claimed his wife had attacked him and their child with a knife.
Upon the arrival of emergency services, Dawn was found lying on the floor of their home in Redhill, Surrey, with her throat cut.
Rhodes claimed to officers that his wife had come at him after “flipping like a Hulk” and had struck him twice on the back of the head and that he had acted to defend both himself and their child. In order to back up his claims, Rhodes had stabbed himself and inflicted a wound on the child’s arms, which he claimed were the actions of his wife.
However, four years later, the child spoke to a therapist about their father’s manipulative actions and went to the police to reveal the truth.
The child revealed that they had been instructed by their father to tell Dawn to close her eyes and wait to be handed a picture. After the child left the room, Rhodes attacked his wife with a knife as she stood with her eyes shut, unaware of the impending attack.
It was subsequently disclosed how Rhodes had maintained contact while on bail in 2016 and 2017, giving the child instructions to stick to the plan.
Rhodes continued to manipulate and groom the child, including hiding a phone at his mother’s house on which he would leave messages for the child, reminding them about the agreement they had made.
During his sentencing, the child said they had been left with PTSD, difficulties in building relationships and unable to concentrate in school. They described the process of giving evidence as “heartbreaking and distressing” and that they had been accused of “lying” and of being “attention-seeking”.
They also hit out at their father for “gaslighting me, parading around as a survivor, while destroying me and my mother”.
“I wish I could say his manipulating and abuse has not ruined my life, but I can’t,” they told the court. “I wish I could say Robert Rhodes did not take everything away from me, but I can’t.”
Dawn Rhodes’ mother, Liz Spencer, told the court in an impact statement: “I have waited nearly 10 years for this result. I don’t look upon the result as justice, but I feel for the first time my daughter’s voice is being heard.”
She said the trial had “highlighted how my daughter Dawn was a victim”, adding: “Dawn was a loving daughter, sister, and mother.”
When he was arrested for murder again, he tellingly told officers he had “thought this would come back to bite me”.
His acquittal on the murder charge was quashed in the Court of Appeal, and the Crown Prosecution Service was granted permission by senior judges to bring the case to a second trial.
“The new evidence that came from the child witness was profoundly shocking and showed just how much careful planning Robert Rhodes had put into murdering his wife”, said Libby Clark, from the CPS.
“He exploited a young child before the murder, explaining his plan to cover up the truth and make it appear as if Dawn had attacked him, so that he could claim that he acted in self-defence. This included Rhodes inflicting injuries on the young child’s arm.
“He continued with his web of lies over the intervening years. It is thanks to the immense bravery of the child in coming forward to explain exactly what happened that night that Robert Rhodes has finally been brought to justice for the murder of Dawn, something he mistakenly thought he could get away with.
“None of us can even begin to imagine what Rhodes has put the child through over a period of many years. Now though, as a result of their evidence, Dawn can now be remembered by everyone in the right way – as a victim of her violent partner.”
Detective chief inspector Kimball Edey, from the Surrey and Sussex Police major crime team, said: “During the first trial, Dawn was portrayed as the villain but had actually been a victim of domestic abuse and coercive control at the hands of her husband for years.
“The fact that Rhodes not only murdered his wife in cold blood but then manipulated and groomed his own child to play a part in his evil scheme and cover up what he had done is simply despicable – not only did he take a life; he irreparably damaged another, as well as the lives of everyone else who loved Dawn.”
Rhodes, from Withleigh, Devon, denied all the charges against him at his second trial.
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