Crossbow killer convicted of raping his ex-partner during attack near London in which 3 women died

LONDON (AP) — A former British soldier who had previously pleaded guilty to the murder of three women at their family home just north of London was found guilty Thursday of raping one of them, his ex-partner, during the "carefully planned" attack.

After around 45 minutes of deliberations, the 12-person jury at Cambridge Crown Court unanimously convicted Kyle Clifford of raping his 25-year-old ex-girlfriend Louise Hunt during the attack on the family that involved a crossbow and a 10-inch knife.

Clifford, 26, had pleaded guilty in January of murdering Louise and her 28-year-old sister Hannah Hunt with a crossbow and their mother, Carol Hunt, 61, with a knife on July 9, 2024. The three women were the wife and two of the daughters of BBC horse racing commentator John Hunt, who was in court throughout the four-day trial and the verdict, along with his surviving 31-year-old daughter Amy.

Clifford, who served in the military from 2019 for around three years, is due to be sentenced on Tuesday for the murders and the rape. Under English law, he will automatically get a life sentence for the murders. The only question left for Judge Joel Bennathan is how long he will have to serve in prison before he may be eligible for parole.

Clifford, who did not appear in court after refusing to leave his cell at Belmarsh Prison in southeast London, had denied raping Louise in January, when he admitted to three counts of murder, one of false imprisonment and two counts of possession of offensive weapons.

“He has put the family through the ordeal of the trial, he has created everything that’s happened over this past week and failing to show his face is completely cowardly," said Detective Chief Inspector Nick Gardner of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit. “This was not a crime of passion, but a carefully planned assault.”

During the case, the jury was shown evidence that Clifford gained access to the family home in the quiet residential neighborhood of Bushey, northeast of the capital, by deceiving Carol Hunt on the pretext he was returning Louise's belongings, before brutally stabbing her to death.

The court heard that Louise and customers of her grooming business, which was based in a pod in the Hunt family’s garden, were using the gate at the side of the house “not realising what was happening” when Carol was murdered.

Clifford “lay in wait” for an hour for Louise to enter the house, before restraining, raping and ultimately murdering her with a crossbow. He then fatally shot Hannah Hunt when she returned to the property after work.

Prosecutors said Clifford had become “enraged” when an increasingly concerned Louise ended their 18-month relationship. They said he then “carefully” planned the murders, describing the rape of Louise as a “violent, sexual act of spite.”

Judge Bennathan described Clifford’s crimes as “dreadful” and “almost unspeakable.”

Following the murders, police launched a manhunt for the suspect before he was found injured the following day in a cemetery in Enfield, north London. Clifford had shot himself in the chest with the crossbow. He remains in a wheelchair, having been paralysed from the chest downwards.

In evidence that was not presented to the jury as a result of a decision by the judge, prosecutors said Clifford searched for the podcast of the self-styled misogynist influencer Andrew Tate less than 24 hours before the murders. They said the “violent misogyny promoted” by Tate "fueled” Clifford’s attacks.