Triple killer Kyle Clifford will serve a whole life sentence for raping his ex-girlfriend and murdering her along with her mother and sister, a judge has said.
Warning: This article contains distressing details.
A whole life sentence means Clifford will never be released. Mr Justice Bennathan is still delivering his sentencing remarks.
The former soldier, 26, admitted murdering BBC racing commentator John Hunt’s wife Carol Hunt, 61, and their daughters Louise, 25, and Hannah, 28.
He also pleaded guilty to false imprisonment of his former partner Louise, as well as possession of the crossbow used to kill her and her sister, and the 10-inch butcher’s knife he stabbed their mother to death with.
Image: Louise Hunt Pic: Facebook
Clifford denied raping Louise, who had broken up with him 13 days before the four-hour attack in the Hunt family home on 9 July last year.
But he was found guilty by a jury last week after a trial at Cambridge Crown Court, which he refused to attend, prompting police to brand him a “coward”.
The court heard Clifford, from Enfield, north London, began planning the murders after Louise ended their 18-month relationship in a message on 26 June.
Image: Carol Hunt pictured with her husband John Hunt. Pic: Facebook
He tricked his way inside before stabbing her mother to death in what prosecutors said was a “brutal knife attack”, then lay in wait for an hour for Louise to enter the house.
Clifford held her for more than two hours, as he restrained her with duct tape and raped her, then shot her through the chest with a crossbow moments before her sister Hannah got home and was also killed.
He fled the scene and shot himself with the weapon as armed police descended and is now paralysed from the chest down.
The jury wasn’t told he had searched for Andrew Tate’s podcast less than 24 hours before the murders.
In legal argument, prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said the attack was fuelled by the same kind of “violent misogyny promoted” by the controversial social media influencer.
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