John Hunt still speaks to his wife and two daughters every day after they were murdered in a crossbow and knife attack at their family home. Kyle Clifford, 26, killed his ex-partner Louise Hunt, 25, her sister Hannah Hunt, 28, and their mum Carol Hunt, 61, at the house in a quiet cul-de-sac in Bushey on July 9 last year.
A trial heard Clifford became “enraged” when Louise ended their 18-month relationship, leading him to “carefully” plan the attack. He was sentenced to a whole-life order at Cambridge Crown Court in March after pleading guilty to the murders, while he was later convicted of raping Louise in a “violent, sexual act of spite”.
Giving their first interviews since the murders, Mr Hunt and his surviving daughter Amy Hunt said they were both keen to keep the spirit of their loved ones alive.
‘I say good morning to each of them’
Mr Hunt told BBC News: “From the moment I wake up, I say good morning to each of them. Sometimes I say out loud to Hannah and Louise, ‘Girls, sorry I can’t be with you, I’m with your mum at the moment’. As I close my eyes at night, I chat to them as well. So yeah, very close (to me) all the time.”
Amy Hunt said: “My mum, Hannah and Louise became a statistic. They became victims of Kyle Clifford. I want to breathe life back into my mum, Hannah and Louise as fully-rounded people.”
Clifford gained access to the family home by deceiving Mrs Hunt into thinking he was returning some of Louise’s things, then stabbed her to death in a brutal knife attack. After killing Mrs Hunt, the defendant waited for an hour for Louise to enter the house, then restrained, raped and murdered her with a crossbow.
He then fatally shot Hannah Hunt with the weapon when she returned to the property after work. Amy said there was nothing in Clifford’s behaviour leading up to the incident that suggested he was capable of committing such crimes, but it had become clear by the end of his relationship with Louise that he was “not that nice of a person”.
She said: “Did we have any indication that this man was capable of stabbing my mother, of tying Louise up, of raping Louise, of shooting Louise and shooting Hannah? Absolutely not.”
Mr Hunt said: “He never once hit her. He was in the house an awful lot in that 18 months – I never heard raised voices once.” He said he recalled his three daughters going out for sushi a few weeks prior to the attack, before Hannah said on their return “how lucky” they had been as a family.
Mr Hunt added: “It’s a beautiful thing to recall. It was a beautiful thing to hear at the same time.” Hannah was able to message her boyfriend and call 999 in the moments before she died in the attack, telling them what had happened and who was responsible.
‘Hannah saved my life by raising the alarm’
Asked if his daughter’s actions had saved his life, Mr Hunt said: “That’s what I believe. I said it in court and I said many, many times, her doing that has given me life. And I’ve used that to re-ground myself on a daily basis. I get to live. Hannah gave me that, and I’ve got to treat it as a gift from her.”
Clifford refused to attend his sentencing in person or via video link and was not ordered to be forcibly brought before the court as the judge believed he may have disrupted proceedings. Amy said the act was evidence there was “consistently a system that prioritises the perpetrator”, adding: “That’s a traumatising thing for so many people.”
Mr Hunt, who still lives in the family home, said his return to commentary work had helped him move forward in the months after the sentencing.
He said: “When it happened I thought, ‘How on earth am I ever going to be able to care about anything ever again?’ It’s fine to sit with that thought in the wreckage of what was our personal disaster. But you come to realise that, with a little bit of work, you can find some light again.”
Standing Strong: The John and Amy Hunt Interview is on BBC One at 9pm tonight (Thursday, June 26).
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