Ex-head teacher facing lengthy jail term after New Year’s Day ‘bloodbath’

Ex-head teacher facing lengthy jail term after New Year’s Day ‘bloodbath’

A “sadistic” husband is facing a lengthy jail term after murdering his estranged wife and her lover in a New Year’s Day “bloodbath”.

Former head teacher Rhys Hancock killed Helen Hancock and Martin Griffiths at the former marital home in Duffield, Derbyshire, before calling police to say “I’ve just murdered my wife in her bed.”

Derby Crown Court heard the 40-year-old defendant was found outside the property in a blood-stained shirt just after the murders, telling a police officer: “I’m hardly going to deny it; look at me.”

Hancock, a father of three, inflicted 66 injuries on his 39-year-old wife using two kitchen knives he had taken from his mother’s house in Etwall.

Victims of incident in Duffield identified
Helen Hancock suffered 66 injuries in the attack (Derbyshire Police/PA)

The court heard how before travelling 10 miles to the former marital home, Hancock told his mother Denise Hancock of his plans – saying he “would get 25 or 30 years in prison and that he would be released when he was in his 60s”.

Summarising Hancock’s actions, prosecutor Michael Auty QC told the sentencing hearing: “There is no escaping these murders were premeditated, they were savage, the attack was merciless, there were elements of sadism and the intention was always … and only to kill.

“Perhaps, above all else, they were committed in the coldest of blood.”

Mr Auty told the court the defendant had left his mother’s house with the knives, before returning moments later to “share a cup of tea with his mother one last time, as if it was his way of bidding her farewell”.

Mrs Hancock, a PE teacher, and father-of-two Mr Griffiths were pronounced dead at the detached property in New Zealand Lane shortly before 5am on January 1.

The defendant pleaded guilty to two counts of murder at a previous hearing.

Duffield double murder
A senior member of the ambulance service said it was the ‘most violent incident he had ever seen in over 17 years’ experience’ (Jacob King/PA)

Her son had taken both landline telephones with him to Duffield and tried to locate her mobile phone in an attempt to prevent her from alerting the police – having told her: “I feel like I want to kill them.”

Mr Auty said the operator “tried to persuade her to telephone Helen and warn her, but she had no idea what she would say”.

Victims of incident in Duffield identified
Martin Griffiths suffered 37 injuries in the ‘brutal’ attack (Derbyshire Police/PA)

A police officer arrived at 4.28am and saw Hancock, who was wearing a shirt stained with blood.

He was arrested moments later after telling police he had entered the property through the unlocked back door before going upstairs to the bedroom.

The court heard the defendant previously told his mother: “I’ve got the key. I can creep in and catch them in bed together.”

Hancock was unable to enter through the front door as a key was on the other side of the lock.

After Hancock’s arrest, police made their way into the house and discovered both victims lying on the floor – a scene described by ambulance staff as a “blood bath”.

In his opening, Mr Auty said Hancock was on police bail at the time of the murders after he allegedly threw something at his wife in October 2019, causing a laceration.

Speaking on behalf of the defendant, Clive Stockwell QC, defending, said: “The impact of his criminality on New Year’s Day has damaged the lives of many individuals.

“He is very alive to the fact that by his actions he has deprived his own children of the presence of their mother for the rest of their lives in the knowledge … that it was their father who inflicted that bereavement on them.

“Some of the remarks he made at the scene and in interview were disgraceful.

“However distressing this crime was, it does not merit the imposition of a whole life sentence.”

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