Man jailed for murdering wife after child revealed plot in rare retrial

A man has been jailed for 29-and-a-half years for murdering his wife after their child revealed they were coerced into a plot to help him kill her.

Robert Rhodes refused to attend his sentencing - because he maintains his innocence.

Addressing this directly Judge Mrs Justice Ellenbogen said the defendant had now added "cowardice" to his list of characteristics.

She described his acts as "wicked" and "callous", and said Rhodes murdered his wife in the "most brutal way" with "significant force", adding that his actions showed "significant premeditation and planning".

The 52-year-old carpenter from Withleigh, Devon, was convicted of murdering his estranged wife, Dawn Rhodes, by slitting her throat with a knife at their family home in Redhill, Surrey, in June 2016.

He was previously found not guilty after a trial at the Old Bailey in 2017, where he convinced jurors that he had acted in self-defence during an argument.

Police started to seriously doubt these claims when the couple's child came forward with new evidence in 2021, initially disclosed in therapy, that Rhodes had killed their mother and that they were involved in the murder too.

The child, who was under the age of 10 at the time of the murder, told Surrey Police they had been coerced into helping Rhodes kill her, and that they were manipulated by their father into lying about the true version of events.

The child's new testimony meant Rhodes's acquittal was quashed in November 2024, and permission was granted for a rare retrial in 2025, where the jury unanimously found him guilty of murdering Dawn Rhodes.

After more than 22 hours of deliberation, Robert Rhodes was also found guilty of child cruelty, perverting the course of justice, and two counts of perjury.

Previously, a person could not be retried for the same offence after being cleared. But the double jeopardy law in England and Wales changed in 2005 to allow a second trial for the most serious of offences, including murder, if new and compelling evidence came to light after a verdict.

Child addresses court

Speaking in court, the child said "the traumatic experience" they were put through "can never go away".

"The scar Robert Rhodes left me with when he sliced open my forearm will never go away," they added, saying the scar was a "constant reminder" of what their father did to them.

The child described having to testify against their own father as a "heartbreaking process", adding their mother "deserved justice for the agony she was put through".

"On that evening Robert Rhodes not only murdered my mother but he took my dad away from me as well," they added.

The retrial at Inner London Crown Court heard how the plot to kill involved the child - who cannot be named for legal reasons - telling their mother that they had drawn her a picture.

She was then told to close her eyes and hold out her hands, before the child left the room, and Rhodes came in to murder her.

On 2 June 2016, police found Dawn Rhodes lying on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood with her throat cut to the extent that all the structures in her neck had been severed.

During the retrial, eight years later, the court heard how the marriage had been in difficulty prior to Dawn Rhodes's death, and Robert Rhodes had filed for a divorce.

Both Robert Rhodes and the child were found with knife wounds at the scene, which were initially claimed to have been inflicted in an attack by Dawn Rhodes at the original trial.

Robert Rhodes said they were injured after she "flipped like the Hulk" during a row at their family home.

At the second trial, jurors heard that these wounds were actually part of a "cover-up", to make it look like the pair had sustained self-defence wounds.

After he killed his wife, Rhodes self-inflicted two wounds to his scalp before instructing the child to inflict two more on his back.

He then cut his own child's arm so deeply that it required stitches under general anaesthetic.

The child was under the age of criminal responsibility at the time, and holds no criminal responsibility for their role in the attack.

They told police that during supervised contact with Rhodes in 2016 and 2017, while he was on bail after being charged with murder, he had told them that they had "got some things wrong" and continued to give them instructions to stick to the plan.

Rhodes even hid a phone at his mother's house for when the child visited, on which he would leave messages for the child, reminding them about the agreement they had.

(c) Sky News 2026: Man jailed for murdering wife after child revealed plot in rare retrial