Husband jailed for life over ‘wicked’ murder of wife
A husband who killed his wife and manipulated his own child in a “wicked” plot to get away with murder has been jailed for life.
Robert Rhodes, 52, cut wife Dawn’s throat in the kitchen of their family home in 2016 as their marriage crumbled and he had found out she was having an affair with a work colleague. He had plotted the murder for months, and duped their child – who was under the age of 10 – into helping him carry out the fatal attack. Rhodes, a carpenter, then spun a web of lies to pretend he had only inflicted the fatal wound to his wife in self-defence and “gaslit” his child into supporting his false story. Rhodes thought he had got away with murder when he was acquitted at an Old Bailey trial in 2017. But in 2021, his traumatised child told a therapist and then the police what had really happened. Rhodes had stabbed himself and slashed his child’s arm after murdering his wife, to bolster his claim that he had been defending himself. At Inner London Crown Court on Friday, Mrs Justice Ellenbogen sentenced Rhodes to life in prison for the murder with a minimum term of 29-and-a-half years. Rhodes was also found guilty in December last year 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. The judge imposed concurrent jail sentences for those charges. Rhodes refused to come to court to face his sentencing hearing, and instead sent a message through his lawyer saying that he “maintains his innocence”. The judge branded Rhodes a “coward” for refusing to leave his prison cell, saying this added to his existing list of “malignant characteristics”. “You brutally murdered your estranged wife Dawn Rhodes”, said the judge, concluding the motive was “sexual jealousy”. “Your wicked and callous acts have had a devastating and divisive effect on Dawn’s family and your own.” Mrs Justice Ellenbogen said of Rhodes’ plan to claim self-defence: “Having took her life, you sought also to deprive Dawn over her good name.” The child, left physically and mentally scarred, told the court that Rhodes’ actions had “ruined my life”. 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 convinced a jury to acquit him of murder 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. At Friday’s sentencing hearing, the child told the judge they have been left with lifelong mental health struggles and a scar on their arm inflicted by their own father. “While the symptoms can be managed, the traumatic experiences Robert Rhodes put me through will never go away”, they said. “The scar Robert Rhodes left me with when he sliced open my forearm will never go away. “Robert Rhodes’ actions and my mental health struggles will forever affect me and impact the rest of my life.” The child recalled the “heartbreaking and distressing” experience of giving evidence against Rhodes last year, and hit out at their father for “gaslighting me, parading around as a survivor, while destroying me and my mother”. “I wish I could stand here and say I’ve moved on with my life, and the pain, manipulation and abuse Robert Rhodes subjected me to has not ruined my life, but I can’t,” they said. “I wish I could say that Robert Rhodes has not taken everything from me, but I can’t. Once this is all over, I can begin to rebuild my life from the ruins I have been left in. On that evening, Robert Rhodes not only murdered my mother but he took my dad from me as well.” 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.” The court heard Dawn Rhodes revealed her relationship with another man at Christmas 2015, and made it clear to Rhodes that the marriage was over. The judge said Rhodes became “obsessed” with his estranged wife’s new relationship. He researched online how to hack WhatsApp messages and Facebook accounts, and once searched “I want to unlock my cheating wife’s tablet”. Chillingly, Rhodes had also conducted online research into poisons and drugs that would incapacitate. After fatally stabbing his wife, Rhodes coached the child to support his version of events. When he was arrested for murder again, he 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 from behind with a knife as she stood with her eyes closed, unaware of the impending attack. “Robert Rhodes thought he had got away with murder after he killed his wife,” said Libby Clark, from the CPS. “Dawn’s voice has now been heard.” Detective Chief Inspector Kimball Edey, from the Surrey and Sussex Police major crime team, praised the child witness for helping to unravel Rhodes’ “web of deceit”. “While it should be acknowledged that the child was under the age of criminal responsibility at the time of Dawn’s death and that they were not responsible for the acts that Rhodes manipulated them into doing, the realisation that they were complicit in Dawn’s death and, coming forward to set the record straight nine years later, is nothing short of extraordinary”, he said. “The fact that Rhodes not only murdered his wife in cold blood but then manipulated and groomed a 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. “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. “Her tragic death draws attention to the need to dispel and challenge myths and stereotypes around who may or may not be victims of domestic abuse, and who indeed may be capable of causing such harm. Otherwise, many victims will feel unable to reach out, and will continue to suffer in silence, while those causing harm in relationships are able to exist unchecked.” Rhodes, from Withleigh, Devon, denied all the charges against him at his second trial. His barrister Nina Grahame KC told the court he had refused to attend court but “maintained his innocence in these matters”.
Published: by Radio NewsHub