A child who was coerced into helping their father murder their mother and then gave evidence suggesting his innocence has told how their ‘guilt’ will never go away.
Remorseless Robert Rhodes, 52, savagely killed his wife Dawn in their family home in 2016 after their marriage crumbled and he found out she was having an affair with a work colleague
The ‘callous’ killer had plotted the murder for months, and duped their child – who was under the age of 10 – into helping him carry out the fatal attack.
Rhodes, a carpenter, was arrested for murder that same evening but, with the help of the youngster, was able to spin a web of lies to pretend he had only inflicted the fatal wound to his wife in self-defence.
But Rhodes finally faced justice today as he was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 29 years and six months for Dawn’s brutal murder.
Following his sentencing, the child, whose name, age and sex cannot be reported for legal reasons, made a powerful victim impact statement admitting how their trauma, guilt and shame ‘will never go away’.
aAt Friday’s sentencing hearing, the child told the judge they have been left with lifelong mental health struggles and a scar on their arm inflicted by their own father.
‘While the symptoms can be managed, the traumatic experiences Robert Rhodes put me through will never go away’, they said.
Remorseless murderer Robert Rhodes refused to attend Inner London Crown Court today – with the court told he ‘maintains his innocence’
‘The scar Robert Rhodes left me with when he sliced open my forearm will never go away.
‘Robert Rhodes’ actions and my mental health struggles will forever affect me and impact the rest of my life.’
The child recalled the ‘heartbreaking and distressing’ experience of giving evidence against Rhodes last year, and hit out at their father for ‘gaslighting me, parading around as a survivor, while destroying me and my mother’.
Speaking bravely through tears, the child added: ‘Robert Rhodes lied to me, bribed me, made me feel special in order to manipulate me for his own gain.
‘I wish I could stand here and say I’ve moved on with my life. I wish I could say Robert Rhodes has not taken everything away from me, but I can’t.
‘On that evening, Robert Rhodes not only murdered my mother but he took my dad from me as well.
‘Once this is all over, I can begin to rebuild my life from the ruins I have been left in.’
Rhodes refused to attend the sentencing, and judge Mrs Justice Ellenbogen was told he ‘maintains his innocence’.
Dawn Rhodes was murdered by her estranged husband – though for years he got away with blaming her for her death
The judge described this as ‘cowardice,’ and said his offending was ‘wicked’ and ‘callous’.
Prosecutors said Rhodes planned to ‘get rid of mummy’ by taking advantage of the strained relationship between Dawn and the child.
The court heard Rhodes, who had taken cocaine, instructed the youngster to tell Dawn to close her eyes so she could be presented with a painting – the child then darted out of the room, allowing Rhodes to sneak in and slash his estranged wife from behind.
Rhodes and his young child then cut each other to make it seem like Dawn was the aggressor.
The bloodbath took place at their home in Redhill, Surrey, on June 2 2016.
Rhodes told police that his wife had attacked him and their child with a knife, and that he had acted in self-defence.
When police attended, they found Dawn lying on the kitchen floor. Her throat had been cut so aggressively that all the structures in her neck had been severed. Rhodes was arrested for murder that evening.
During his police interview, he said that he and Dawn had been arguing in the kitchen when she picked up a knife and swung it towards the child, at which point he told the child to go upstairs.
Rhodes initially wept in his first interviews with police, butoffered no comment when he was re-arrested over Dawn’s death
He said he managed to get hold of the knife and that Dawn came at him in a fury. He swung at her with the knife, he said, and made contact with her neck, before he ran upstairs and called the police.
Rhodes began to cry as he gave his version of events.
When the child was interviewed, they gave an account consistent with the one Rhodes had put forward as to how the injuries they suffered had been inflicted.
Rhodes was charged – the child forming a key part of his defence at court. He was acquitted, and, after a year spent remanded in prison waiting for the trial, was a free man.
But in November 2021, the child told their therapist that Rhodes had planned Dawn’s murder and had manipulated them into being involved in it.
Rhodes described it as ‘our plan’, and then made the child lie about how their mother had died.
The acquittal was quashed by the Court of Appeal in 2024, and permission was granted for a retrial for the offence of murder.
Rhodes was also charged with child cruelty, perjury and perverting the course of justice.
He coldly gave police a succession of ‘no-comment’ answers.
During his trial at Inner London Crown Court last year, 52-year-old Rhodes maintained that he was acting in self-defence and that the child was lying.
He had been living with his new fiancee, a woman more than 20 years his junior, in the village of Withleigh in Mid-Devon when he was re-arrested.
He later told police: ‘I kind of thought this would come back to bite me.’
The judge handed Rhodes a term of six years and nine months each for one count each of child cruelty and perverting the course of justice, and terms of four years and three years for two counts of perjury.
They will run concurrently with the life sentence, meaning the total jail term was just under 30 years before he can be considered for release by the Parole Board.
Rhodes was told the 590 days spent in custody awaiting trial would be deducted from the total, but that he may never be released.
Police and prosecutors paid tribute to Dawn’s family, and said her name and reputation had been cleared.
Libby Clark, senior Crown prosecutor with the CPS, said: ‘The new evidence that came from the child witness was profoundly shocking and showed just how much careful planning Robert Rhodes had put into murdering his wife.
‘He exploited a young child before the murder, explaining his plan to cover up the truth and make it appear as if Dawn had attacked him, so that he could claim that he acted in self-defence.
‘This included Rhodes inflicting injuries on the young child’s arm. He continued with his web of lies over the intervening years.
‘It is thanks to the immense bravery of the child in coming forward to explain exactly what happened that night that Robert Rhodes has finally been brought to justice for the murder of Dawn, something he mistakenly thought he could get away with.
‘None of us can even begin to imagine what Rhodes has put the child through over a period of many years.
‘Now though, as a result of their evidence, Dawn can now be remembered by everyone in the right way – as a victim of her violent partner.’
Detective chief inspector Kimball Edey, from the Surrey and Sussex Police major crime team, said: ‘During the first trial, Dawn was portrayed as the villain but had actually been a victim of domestic abuse and coercive control at the hands of her husband for years.
‘The fact that Rhodes not only murdered his wife in cold blood but then manipulated and groomed his own child to play a part in his evil scheme and cover up what he had done is simply despicable.
‘Not only did he take a life, he irreparably damaged another, as well as the lives of everyone else who loved Dawn.’
