Kyle Clifford meticulously planned his slaughtering of the Hunt women.
The triple killer, 26, confessed to the evil murders of his ex-girlfriend Louise, 25, her sister Hannah Hunt, 28, and their mother Carol Hunt, 61, on July 9 last year. Dog grooming business owner Louise, who was the daughter of BBC Five Live racing commentator John Hunt, died alongside her elder sister and mother at their home in Bushey, Hertfordshire.
Clifford denied raping Louise and refused to attend court for the trial. He had claimed his DNA was found on the young woman after they had consensual sex 16 days before the bloodbath last summer. However today, it took a jury just minutes to return a guilty verdict for rape.
It’s expected that prosecutors will now demand that Clifford is handed a whole-life term during his sentencing at Cambridge Crown Court. Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC told the court about the killer’s sinister plot to massacre the family after Louise was brave enough to call off their 18-month relationship.
Friends of the BBC star’s daughter had become concerned about Clifford’s “disrespectful, rude and arrogant” behaviour, along with his “nasty temper”. On June 23, the day they returned from a friend’s wedding in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, together, Louise messaged Clifford to let him know she had spoken to her father and that “they needed to have a conversation”.
The court heard how Clifford responded with a furious flurry of messages, telling Louise he was “not going to take sh*t from her” and that he wasn’t going to “beg someone to love me for who I am”. Mrs Morgan told the jury: “The defendant set about planning an attack on the Hunt family, including Louise.
“He purchased weapons and equipment for an attack which he intended would involve killing more than one person and would involve the restraint and rape of Louise Hunt. The defendant’s planning began shortly after Louise Hunt sent the message ending their relationship.
“The attack was carefully planned and executed, involving the deceit of Louise’s mother Carol Hunt, in order to gain access to the family home, followed by a brutal knife attack upon her. The defendant then waited for Louise to enter the property, before restraining, raping and ultimately murdering her with a crossbow.
“He then killed Louise’s sister Hannah Hunt with the crossbow, when she returned to the property after work.” Days before the murders, Clifford was caught on CCTV buying a 30m length rope for £14.75 at Toolstation in Enfield.
Similar rope was found near where Clifford was arrested, fashioned into a “makeshift noose”, the court heard. He is also said to have viewed Carol’s Facebook page, while discussing buying a crossbow with his brother and searching for air rifles.
Clifford bought a Hori-Zone Komet MXT-405 Compound crossbow, a pack of six carbon crossbow bolts and an Excalibur rope cocking device from an archery website, the court heard. He also ordered a £244 CO2 Glock Air Pistol, but it was not delivered before the day of the attack, the court heard.
Clifford then bought two rolls of silver duct tape from B&Q and two petrol cans from Halfords. He also bought an £89 Dalstrong Phantom Series 10ins knife, said to be a high-level butchery knife. The blade was never recovered but prosecutors say this was the weapon used to murder Carol Hunt.
While researching and ordering the weapons, on July 4, Clifford wrote on social media saying his dog had died. Dog-loving Louise is said to have messaged him to say she was sorry for his loss, the court was told.
Chilling CCTV footage also showed Clifford’s movements on the fateful day that he murdered the three women. At 1.48pm on July 9, after parking near the Hunt’s family home in Ashlyn Close, Clifford is said to have noticed John’s car parked outside and searched the internet for “horse racing today”. He then took a black rucksack from the boot of his Seat Ibiza, which contained a 10inch butcher’s knife.
He carried a white plastic bag containing Louise’s possessions, which he used as a “ruse” to get into the house. Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC told jurors: “It was a very careful plan to get himself into the address. The plastic bag is the ruse to persuade Carol to let him in the house.”
Footage from a camera at the front of the home in Ashlyn Close shows the 26-year-old on the doorstep and audio recorded his conversation with his former partner’s mother. Clifford knocked on the Hunt’s front door and was greeted by Carol, who he tells he has written “a card to say bye”.
Carol was heard telling Clifford: “Maybe, maybe think in the next relationship… the way you are and maybe try and change [inaudible]. If you carry on like this you’ll end up on your own.”
Clifford replied. “I’ve started therapy as well”, before Carol told him: “I don’t think you’re a nasty person.” After the heart-to-heart, Carol then told Clifford, “Well I wish you luck Kyle,” before he asked for a bag to put in Louise’s possession. But jurors were told that within a minute of stepping inside the property after Carol let him in, a series of screams could be heard.
Mrs Morgan told the court: “The defendant committed a violent attack on Carol. As we will come to, Carol sustained significant knife wounds. The evidence suggests that she struggled to get away from the defendant. Although it is not possible to know precisely when Carol died, she is likely to have died rapidly after the infliction of these injuries.”
Using the alleyway at the side of the property, unsuspecting customers continued to drop their dogs off at Louise’s grooming business, which was located in a pod in the back garden, completely “oblivious” of what had happened inside the property, the court heard. At 3.07pm, Clifford is said to be caught on CCTV returning to his car, wearing a black tracksuit, to collect a crossbow which he carried hidden under a white blanket.
He let himself back into the house with a key. He then waited for Louise to enter the property before “restraining, raping and ultimately murdering her” with the weapon. He had held Louise captive for almost three hours after deceiving his way into her family home with a thank you card to her parents, which said: “Thanks for the love and kindness.”
When her sister Hannah returned home from work, he also attacked her with the crossbow. When police arrived to the property, Louise and Carol were dead and Hannah was alive with a crossbow bolt in her chest. Sadly, she too could not be saved and died soon after.
Ms Morgan said: “If he wanted Louise, he would have her, rape her and murder her and members of her family.” She pointed to the fact he bought duct tape as indicating he was planning an act involving her restraint.
“If he could not have her, no one else was going to, and he was going to take her family down with her,” the prosecutor said, adding that his planning involved “sexual violence as a means of acting out in spite in a final act before Louise’s death”.
Ms Morgan says there was an “overlap between violence and sexual thoughts”, demonstrated by him searching for a crossbow, before looking at pornography. This was the “marrying up of thoughts of extreme violence with sexual desire and fulfilment,” she says.
Clifford was captured the following day on July 10 at a cemetery near his home in Enfield, North London. He was paralysed from the chest down after shooting himself with a crossbow as armed cops closed in on his location.
Clifford pleaded guilty in January to the three murders, false imprisonment and possessing the crossbow and knife. He will be sentenced at a later date.
