A husband who recruited his young child to help him ‘get rid of mummy’ has had his murder sentence increased after it was deemed ‘unduly lenient’.
Robert Rhodes, 53, slashed his wife Dawn’s throat at their home in Redhill, Surrey, on June 2, 2016, but walked free from the Old Bailey 11 months later after claiming he acted in self-defence.
His story of being attacked by Dawn was backed up by their young child, whose name, age and sex cannot be reported for legal reasons.
They claimed she lunged at them both, slashing the child’s arm before stabbing Rhodes in the back.
Dawn was blamed for her own death for nearly a decade until Rhodes was finally brought to justice after their child, ‘burdened by guilt, decided it was time for the truth to emerge’.
In late 2021, they changed their story, saying their mum was never the aggressor and had in fact been ambushed by Rhodes while sitting with her eyes closed and waiting for a ‘surprise’.
It was all, they said, part of a chilling plan the two of them had hatched together in the days before.
The child confessed to distracting their mum by asking her to close her eyes and hold out her hands so they could give her a picture they had drawn.
They said they quietly left the room while Rhodes approached Dawn from behind and cut her throat.
Rhodes was found guilty at a second trial at Inner London Crown Court in December of murder, 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.
He was jailed for life in January for the ‘wicked, callous’ crimes and ordered to serve a minimum term of 29-and-a-half years.
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Solicitor General Ellie Reeves referred his sentence to the Court of Appeal as ‘unduly lenient’, and lawyers told a hearing on Tuesday that the murder sentence alone should have had a starting point of 30 years before the other offences were taken into account.
In a ruling, Lady Justice May, sitting with Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb and Judge Nigel Lickley KC, agreed that the sentence was unduly lenient and said that the murder was ‘truly appalling’, adding: ‘We find it hard to conceive of a more heinous plot.’
The senior judge added that the cover-up involving the child was a ‘particularly abhorrent aspect of this case’ involving ‘callous, selfish manipulation and abuse’, which was ‘not sufficiently reflected’ in the sentencing remarks of the trial judge, Mrs Justice Ellenbogen.
They increased the minimum term to 33-and-a-half years.
John Price KC, prosecuting in Rhodes’ second murder trial, told jurors Dawn’s murder was ‘cold-blooded and premeditated’.
‘She was ambushed in her kitchen,’ he said.
‘We submit that this killing was then accompanied by a cover-up of the truth.
‘This was designed to make it appear that it was she – Dawn Rhodes – the dead woman who could not now speak who had taken up a knife.
‘In fact, as her own child has now confessed, Dawn Rhodes had been tricked by that little child to close her eyes and hold out her hands.
‘As part of that cover up, the knife which the defendant had used on his wife, was then used on his own child.
‘We further submit that this cover-up of the truth of how Dawn Rhodes died was further sustained by him by lies he told on oath.
‘And this cover-up succeeded for a time.
‘Robert Rhodes had got away with murder, we submit, that is until a teenager, plagued and grievously burdened by the guilt they felt by the great wrong which had been done to their mother and which the child knew they had helped bring about, decided it was time for the truth to emerge – whatever might be the cost for them.’
Describing the night their mum died, the child said: ‘He told me it was happening that night.
‘I think I went, “Oh Mummy I drew a picture for you”, then dad looked at me.
‘I told her to close her eyes and then hold out her hands.’
The child said Rhodes moved to pick up a knife from the counter as they left the room.
After hearing something ‘really heavy falling on the floor’, the child said they went upstairs briefly before returning when Rhodes called them back down again.
‘That’s when dad told me to stab him,’ they added.
Crouching down and pointing to his upper back, the teenager said Rhodes handed them the knife saying: ‘I need you to put this here and push as hard as you can.’
They added: ‘He told me that he needed me. I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to get cut and he was trying to tell me we have both done it, you need to, otherwise he’d go to prison.’
Asked why their account has now changed, the child said: ‘Just because I don’t want to lie any more, because it’s not making me feel any better.
‘It has made me feel awful for so long. I don’t want to feel like that anymore, and I want something to be done.’
At Rhodes’ sentencing hearing, the child told the court 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.’
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