Man faces life sentence for wife’s murder after child provides new evidence to therapist

A man who fatally stabbed his wife and chillingly manipulated their young child in a calculated attempt to escape justice is now due to be sentenced. Robert Rhodes, 52, killed his wife, Dawn, in the kitchen of their family home in 2016. The attack followed the breakdown of their marriage, exacerbated by his discovery of her affair with a colleague.

Rhodes meticulously planned the crime, involving their child, who was under the age of 10, in his scheme. In the aftermath, he fabricated a story, alleging he inflicted the fatal wound during a self-defence struggle. This deception initially proved successful, resulting in his acquittal for murder at his Old Bailey trial in 2017.

But four years later, his child revealed the truth to a therapist, that they had been manipulated into supporting Rhodes’ lies as part of his plan to “get rid of mummy”.

He faced a rare double jeopardy second murder trial and was found guilty by a jury in December last year, thanks to compelling new evidence from the child.

At Inner London Crown Court on Friday, Rhodes will be jailed for life when he is sentenced by Mrs Justice Ellenbogen.

As well as the murder conviction, Rhodes 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.

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The murder happened on June 2 2016 when the couple’s marriage had hit the rocks and Rhodes had filed for divorce.

Police received a 999 call from the child – who cannot be named for legal reasons – at 7.34pm during which Rhodes said his wife had attacked him and their child with a knife.

Dawn Rhodes was found lying on the kitchen floor at their home in Redhill, Surrey, with her throat cut, and her husband began to mount his bogus defence.

He claimed to officers that his wife had hit him twice on the back of the head, and later in his first trial he described her coming at him after “flipping like a Hulk”.

To back up his claims, Rhodes had stabbed himself and inflicted a cut on the child’s arm – wounds he blamed on his wife.

Rhodes thought he had got away with murder when he was acquitted by a jury in 2017.

But his plan started to unravel when the child spoke to a therapist about being manipulated, and then went to police to reveal the truth.

Rhodes had coached the youngster in the aftermath of the stabbing to support his version of events.

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.

Pivotal to the new case was the evidence of the child, who disclosed how Rhodes had maintained contact while on bail in 2016 and 2017, giving them 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.

The child had been instructed by their father to tell Dawn Rhodes to close her eyes and wait to be handed a picture.

The child then left the room, and Rhodes came at his wife with a knife as she stood with her eyes closed, unaware of the impending attack.

“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.

He will be handed an automatic life sentence for murder, and the judge will determine on Friday how many years he must serve before having the chance of release on licence.