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 his young child in a calculated attempt to evade justice is now expected to be sentenced. Robert Rhodes, 52, murdered his wife Dawn in the kitchen of their family home in 2016. The attack followed the breakdown of their marriage, made worse by the revelation of his wife’s affair with a colleague.
Rhodes meticulously planned the crime by including his child under the age of 10 in his plan. He then made up a story, claiming that he had inflicted the fatal wound during a self-defense struggle. The hoax was initially successful, resulting in his acquittal of murder at the Old Bailey trial in 2017.
But four years later her child revealed to a therapist that they had been manipulated into supporting Rhodes’ lies as part of a plan to “get rid of the mummy.”
He faced a second murder trial involving a rare double jeopardy and was found guilty by a jury in December last year thanks to compelling new evidence from the boy.
Rhodes will be sentenced to life imprisonment when sentenced by Lady Justice Ellenbogen at Inner London Crown Court on Friday.
As well as the murder conviction, Rhodes was also found guilty of two counts of perjury at the Old Bailey hearing and the Family Courts in 2018, involving perverting the course of justice by false evidence and cruelty to children.
The murder occurred on June 2, 2016, when the couple’s marriage was deteriorating and Rhodes filed for divorce.
Police received a 999 call at 7.34pm from the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at which time Rhodes said his wife had attacked him and their children with a knife.
Dawn Rhodes was found with her throat slit on the kitchen floor of their home in Redhill, Surrey, and her husband began mounting his false defence.
He claimed to officers that he had hit his wife twice in the back of the head, and later told his first hearing that he came to her after “flipping like the Hulk”.
To support his claims, Rhodes stabbed himself and cut off the child’s arm; He blamed his wife for these injuries.
Rhodes thought he had gotten away with murder when he was acquitted by a jury in 2017.
But his plan began to fail when the boy talked to a therapist about being manipulated and then went to the police to reveal the truth.
Rhodes coached the young player after the stabbing to support his version of events.
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.
The centerpiece of the new case was the child’s testimony, which described how Rhodes maintained contact while he was out on bail in 2016 and 2017 and gave them instructions to go along with the plan.
Rhodes continued to manipulate and groom the boy, including hiding a phone in his mother’s house where he would leave messages reminding the boy of their agreement.
The boy had been instructed by his father to tell Dawn Rhodes to close her eyes and wait for a photo to be given to her.
The boy then left the room and Rhodes attacked his wife with a knife, who stood with her eyes closed, unaware of the impending attack.
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.
He will be given an automatic life sentence for murder and the judge will decide on Friday how many years he must serve before he has a chance of being released on licence.
