Husband who stabbed wife to death and manipulated their young child to maintain his web of lies jailed
A husband who stabbed his wife to death was sentenced to life imprisonment after his child came forward with new evidence revealing his plan to “get rid of the mother.”
Robert Rhodes, 52, killed Dawn in the kitchen of the family home in 2016 after learning she was having an affair with a colleague.
To cover up his crimes, he injured his young children, all under the age of 10, and led them to help him, claiming that Dawn was the one who attacked them both and that she was acting in self-defense.
His ruse was initially successful and he was acquitted of murder following an Old Bailey trial in 2017, but his web of lies unraveled when his child confessed the real events to a therapist.
Giving his victim impact statement, the child said: “The traumatic experience Robert Rhodes gave me will never go away. The scar he left on me when Robert Rhodes cut my forearm will never go away. My scar is a constant reminder of what Robert Rhodes did to me.”
Rhodes was sentenced to a minimum of 29 years and six months in prison following a rare double jeopardy hearing at Inner London Crown Court; where he was also found guilty of two counts of perjury, perverting the course of justice and cruelty to children for false evidence at the Old Bailey hearing and the Family Courts in 2018.
At the beginning of the hearing, Ms. Justice Ellenbogen announced that Rhodes had refused to leave his prison cell to attend the hearing.
“He maintains his innocence in these matters and has refused to participate,” defense lawyer Nina Grahame KC told the court.
Describing his actions as “evil and callous”, the judge said he could now add “cowardice” to his “truly malignant traits”.
Jurors heard the murder occurred on June 2 after Rhodes filed for divorce following the breakdown of the couple’s marriage. Internet searches in the previous months revealed that Rhodes was “obsessed” with Dawn’s new relationship, repeatedly searching for ways to hack her new partner and his devices. He also researched household poisons, classified drugs capable of killing, and ways to calm or hypnotize a person.
On June 2, police received a 999 call at 7.34pm from the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, during which Rhodes claimed his wife had attacked him and their children with a knife.
When emergency services arrived, Dawn was found with her throat slit on the floor of their home in Redhill, Surrey.
Rhodes claimed to officers that after his wife “tumbled around like the Hulk,” he came at her and hit her twice in the back of the head, claiming she was acting to defend herself and her child. To support his claim, Rhodes stabbed himself and injured the child’s arms, claiming it was his wife’s action.
But four years later, the boy talked to a therapist about his father’s manipulative actions and went to the police to clarify the truth.
The boy explained that his father instructed him to tell Dawn to close her eyes and wait to be given a picture. After the child left the room, Rhodes attacked his wife with a knife, who was standing with her eyes closed, unaware of the impending attack.
It was later revealed how Rhodes maintained contact while out on bail in 2016 and 2017, giving instructions to the boy to stick to the plan.
Rhodes continued to manipulate and groom the boy, including hiding a phone in his mother’s home where he would leave messages on the boy and remind him of the agreement they had made.
During his sentencing, the boy said he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, had difficulties forming relationships and was unable to concentrate at school. They described the deposition as “heartbreaking and distressing” and said they were accused of “lying” and “attention-seeking.”
They also attacked their father for “gaslighting me, destroying me and my mother while walking around as a survivor.”
“I wish I could say his manipulation and abuse didn’t ruin my life, but I can’t,” they told the court. “I wish I could say Robert Rhodes didn’t take everything from me, but I can’t.”
In her impact statement to the court, Dawn Rhodes’ mother, Liz Spencer, said: “I have been waiting for this outcome for nearly 10 years. I do not see the outcome as justice, but I feel like my daughter’s voice has been heard for the first time.”
He said the hearing “highlighted what a victim my daughter Dawn was” and added: “Dawn was a loving daughter, sister and mother.”
When he was arrested again for murder, he told cops he “thought this was going to bite me.”
The acquittal on the murder charge was overturned in the Court of Appeal and the Crown Prosecution Service was given permission to bring the case to a second hearing by senior judges.
Libby Clark, of the CPS, said: “The new evidence from the child witness was extremely shocking and showed how carefully Robert Rhodes planned to kill his wife.”
“He abused a young child before the murder, explaining his plan to cover up the truth and make it look like Dawn had attacked him, so he could claim he was acting in self-defense. This included Rhodes damaging the little boy’s arm.
“He continued to perpetuate his web of lies in the intervening years. Robert Rhodes was eventually brought to justice for Dawn’s murder, thanks to his enormous courage in coming forward to reveal exactly what happened that night, something he mistakenly thought he could get away with.”
“None of us can imagine what Rhodes put the boy through all these years. But now, as a result of their evidence, Dawn is now correctly remembered by all as the victim of her abusive partner.”
Detective Chief Inspector Kimball Edey, of Surrey and Sussex Police’s major crime squad, said: “At the first trial Dawn was portrayed as the villain but in fact she was the 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 plan and cover up what he had done is simply despicable; not only did he take one life, he caused irreparable damage to the life of another and everyone who loved Dawn.”
Rhodes, of Withleigh, Devon, denied all charges against him at his second trial.
