A father who manipulated his own young child into helping him murder his wife has been sentenced to life in prison, finally facing justice after a decade of lies.
A Decade-Long Web of Lies Unravels
Robert Rhodes, a 52-year-old carpenter, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 29-and-a-half years at Inner London Crown Court on Friday. He was convicted of murdering his wife, Dawn Rhodes, in June 2016, after a second trial exposed a chilling plot that involved his own child.
The court heard how Rhodes cut his wife's throat in the kitchen of their family home in Redhill, Surrey, after discovering she was having an affair. He then spent months grooming and manipulating his child, who was under the age of 10 at the time, to support a false claim of self-defence.
The Chilling Manipulation of a Child
In a heartbreaking impact statement, the child told the court they had been left permanently damaged by their father's actions. "The traumatic experiences Robert Rhodes put me through will never go away," they said. "The scar Robert Rhodes left me with when he sliced open my forearm will never go away."
The child described how Rhodes had coached them to tell Dawn to close her eyes to receive a picture. Once she complied, Rhodes attacked her from behind with a knife. To bolster his bogus defence, he then stabbed himself and inflicted a cut on the child's arm, claiming Dawn was the attacker.
Rhodes was initially acquitted of murder at the Old Bailey in 2017 after convincing a jury of his fabricated story. However, the case dramatically unravelled in 2021 when the traumatised child disclosed the truth to a therapist and then to police.
Justice Finally Served
Mrs Justice Ellenbogen, sentencing, branded Rhodes a "coward" for refusing to leave his prison cell to attend the hearing. She said his "wicked and callous acts" had a devastating effect on both families.
Rhodes was also found guilty in December of perjury, perverting the course of justice, and child cruelty. The court heard he had become "obsessed" with his estranged wife's new relationship, conducting online searches on hacking, poisons, and incapacitating drugs prior to the murder.
Libby Clark from the Crown Prosecution Service stated: "It is thanks to the immense bravery of the child in coming forward... that Robert Rhodes has finally been brought to justice." Dawn Rhodes' mother, Liz Spencer, said that while she did not see the result as justice, she felt her daughter's voice was finally being heard.
