Man previously cleared of killing wife convicted after child gives new evidence

A man has been found guilty of murdering his wife following a new trial eight years after being cleared.

Robert Rhodes stabbed his wife Dawn in the neck and was cleared of murder in 2017 after saying she had tried to attack him.

New evidence from Rhodes' child revealed how he coerced them into helping with a plan to kill his wife and injure himself to make it look like self-defence.

Rhodes, 52, who denied ever planning to kill his wife, will be sentenced in the new year.

A new trial at Inner London Crown Court heard how, days before the attack, Rhodes asked the child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to go to Mrs Rhodes and say they had drawn a picture for her.

Mrs Rhodes was then told to "close your eyes and hold out your hands", at which point the child left the room.

Rhodes then stabbed his wife in the neck and killed her in their kitchen at their home near Redhill in Surrey, on 2 June 2016.

During the original trial, Rhodes claimed he had killed his wife in self-defence.

He said she "flipped like the hulk" during an argument at the home in Wimborne Avenue in Earlswood.

Later, Rhodes asked the child to stab him in the back of the shoulder before cutting the child himself on the arm.

In police interviews, the pair claimed Mrs Rhodes had swung a knife at the child and attacked her husband.

Rhodes claimed he fatally injured his wife while defending himself in the fight that ensued.

The child was under 10-years-old at the time, and therefore bears no criminal responsibility for the attack.

They revealed the truth of the attacks to their therapist in 2021, who reported this to the police.

Surrey Police Det Ch Insp Kimbal Edy, told BBC South East: "Dawn's character was essentially dragged through the mud.

"Dawn Rhodes was a victim of murder and the child is a victim who was groomed and manipulated to do the things they have told us that they did.

"He has shown a high level of malevolence, manipulation, and I would go so far as to say evil."

Libby Clark, of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: "The new evidence that came from the child witness was profoundly shocking and showed just how much careful planning Robert Rhodes had put into murdering his wife.

"It is thanks to the immense bravery of the child in coming forward to explain exactly what happened that night that Robert Rhodes has finally been brought to justice for the murder of Dawn, something he mistakenly thought he could get away with.

"None of us can even begin to imagine what Rhodes has put the child through over a period of many years.

"Now though, as a result of their evidence, Dawn can now be remembered by everyone in the right way – as a victim of her violent partner."