MAN FOUND GUILTY OF MURDERING WIFE
A 52-year-old carpenter from Surrey has been convicted of murdering his wife during a rare retrial, which occurred eight years after he was previously acquitted.Robert Rhodes was responsible for the death of his wife, Dawn Rhodes, by slitting her throat with a knife at their family residence in Redhill, Surrey, in June 2016.
The marriage had ended, and he had initiated divorce proceedings.
In 2017, Rhodes was acquitted at the Old Bailey after claiming self-defence during a confrontation.
However, new evidence emerged when their child disclosed that Rhodes was the actual perpetrator and that he had involved the child in the crime.
The child, under the age of 10 at the time, told police in 2021 that Rhodes had manipulated them into lying about the events.
It was revealed that both Rhodes and the child had sustained knife wounds on the scene.
Initially, it was believed that Dawn Rhodes had injured them.
The child's account indicated that Rhodes murdered his wife and then inflicted two wounds on his own scalp before instructing the child to make two additional wounds on his back.
He also cut his child's arm severely enough to require stitches under general anaesthesia.
Under the double jeopardy law, an individual cannot be tried twice for the same crime unless new evidence surfaces after an acquittal or conviction.
On Friday, the jury at Inner London Crown Court found Rhodes guilty of murder, child cruelty, perverting the course of justice, and two counts of perjury.
Rhodes is scheduled for sentencing on 16 January.
Surrey Police stated that the child, who was of primary school age at the time and below the age of criminal responsibility, was 'groomed' by Rhodes to lie about the incident.
The child told authorities that during supervised contact in 2016 and 2017, while Rhodes was on bail, he manipulated them into repeating false narratives and followed his instructions.
Evidence also showed Rhodes hiding a phone at his mother's house to leave messages for the child.
Detective Chief Inspector Kimball Edey emphasized the significance of the new revelations, stating that Dawn was initially portrayed as villainous but was actually a victim of domestic abuse and coercive control.
He described Rhodes's actions as 'despicable,' highlighting the extent of his manipulation and violence.
The Crown Prosecution Service detailed how the child was used to distract Dawn by pretending to present a surprise, which was part of Rhodes’s scheme.
After the murder, he cut his wife's throat and left her face down in a pool of blood in the dining room.
Libby Clark, a specialist prosecutor, praised the child's bravery in coming forward and acknowledged their realization of complicity in their mother’s murder.
The family of Dawn Rhodes expressed their grief and emphasized her roles as a loving daughter, sister, and mother, contrasting her with Rhodes’s actions and character.
They remarked on the difficulty of understanding such a horrific act and expressed their shock at Rhodes's twisted mindset, which led to implicating a child to conceal his crime.
