00:00:05
NARRATOR: In June 2000, the Austins enjoyed what was to be their last family holiday.
00:00:11
A month after this home video was filmed, three members of the family were dead.
00:00:17
On the 10th of July, Claire Austin didn't turn up for her shift as a carer. Her husband, Phillip visited her place of work.
00:00:26
GEOFFREY WANSELL: He told them that his wife wouldn't be in that day because she had back trouble.
00:00:31
A man apparently at ease with himself, and with the world. NARRATOR: In reality, Claire was lying lifeless
00:00:38
in a pool of blood on her kitchen floor, murdered by her own husband. But Phillip Austin wasn't finished yet.
00:00:46
Later that day, he calmly collected his children from school. ANDY TENNET: This isn't a red mist decision.
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This isn't a loss of temper. This is a reasoned decision that a man has made,
00:01:01
that he's going to murder both of his children. NARRATOR: After taking them out for a fish and chips supper,
00:01:07
he strangled them. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He killed his entire family. He killed the family that he had created,
00:01:13
and he did so in such a cool and such a calm way. CAROL QUINN: He tore half of my family out of our lives
00:01:21
NARRATOR: Phillip Austin had committed the unthinkable, and undoubtedly become one of the world's most evil killers.
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[THEME MUSIC] NARRATOR: In the summer of 2000, the Austin family had disappeared, and there was
00:01:54
no answer on the home phone. This was completely out of character, and as former detective inspector
00:02:03
Andy Tennet remembers, local people were starting to worry. The children had not been at school for a week,
00:02:12
and this was during term time. No application had been made to take the children out of school.
00:02:19
The community itself were a little bit anxious because they hadn't seen the family for a while.
00:02:24
In fact, one neighbor had been out to Claire's car, and had even taken the measure of marking
00:02:30
the tires against the curb to see if the car moved overnight. But it didn't.
00:02:37
NARRATOR: The horrifying truth behind their absence would soon be revealed. On Monday the 17th of July 2000, the bodies
00:02:46
of 31-year-old Claire Austin and her children, Kieran, aged eight, and Jade, seven,
00:02:52
were discovered in the family home. The prime suspect was their thirty-one-year-old
00:02:57
husband and father, Phillip Austin, who was nowhere to be found. The damage that he did was not just limited to the three souls
00:03:07
who lost their lives, but it affected everyone, relatives, friends. It was a desperate, desperate thing to do.
00:03:17
NARRATOR: The quiet suburban street in the Standens Barn area of Northampton had been the family's home for eight years.
00:03:25
They appeared to neighbors to be an ordinary family. Now their home was a crime scene.
00:03:32
When we have a family who appear to be normal from the outside, and there is a domestic homicide and the children are killed,
00:03:39
there's a tendency to think that these men have just snapped. They have just lost it.
00:03:44
But that is not what happens at all. You do not go from being a psychologically healthy individual one day to killing your family the next.
00:03:52
These cases, they're not about a loss of control. If anything, they're a way of gaining control.
00:04:00
NARRATOR: This killer story begins in 1969. Phillip Austin was born that Valentine's Day in Northampton.
00:04:09
His mother worked in a care home. His father was a lorry driver. This was a very traditional nuclear family,
00:04:16
and he was an only child. NARRATOR: Phillip's aunt, Maureen Taylor, remembers that he was a reserved little boy.
00:04:23
MAUREEN TAYLOR: We always noticed that he was quiet. I mean, if he was with my son, he sort of opened up a bit,
00:04:29
but other than that, he was always quiet. He was one of those boys who always stood on the sidelines,
00:04:37
always watching, never initiating anything. NARRATOR: After finishing school, Phillip Austin went to work in a factory
00:04:46
before securing a job in the warehouse for a supermarket chain. He was living with his mum and dad while working
00:04:53
as a forklift truck driver. And then, in 1991, he met a girl called Claire Golden.
00:05:00
21-year-old Claire's close friend, Diane Beale, remembers how she loved a night out.
00:05:07
DIANE BEALE: We used to be on the dance floor, dancing together, and everybody was watching us
00:05:11
and we didn't care. She was such fun. She really was. NARRATOR: On the night in question,
00:05:17
Claire was out with another group of friends. But she was keen to tell Diane all about her evening.
00:05:24
She rang me the next day and said that she'd met somebody really nice. And she'd been sitting at a bar, and he was
00:05:33
at the opposite end of the bar. And he brought her rose. And then he took it round to her,
00:05:38
and that's how he introduced himself. She said he was really nice, and she liked him.
00:05:44
She was going to see him again. Claire was about three months younger than he was,
00:05:50
and she was different in every way. She was fun, she was gregarious, she was loyal,
00:05:55
she was happy about everything. Not someone you would expect to fall for this introverted, night-shift forklift truck
00:06:03
driver. NARRATOR: When Claire's mother and stepfather, Carol and Harry, met the new man in her life,
00:06:11
he was not what they were expecting. He wasn't her type. He was quiet. HARRY QUINN: I didn't dislike him or anything, you know.
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I just thought he was a quiet guy who didn't have a lot of interests, you know.
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And I couldn't blame him. He didn't share the same interest as me. NARRATOR: 22-year-old Austin's relationship with Claire
00:06:35
progressed rapidly. Claire very quickly became pregnant after they met. Phil moved in while she was pregnant.
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But she was looking forward to it, and I was happy for her because she seemed happy.
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She said she loved him. NARRATOR: News that there was going to be a new baby in the family was
00:06:55
met with excitement by the prospective grandparents. My husband used to say, I'm not old enough
00:07:01
to be a grandfather, and, I'm not going to be married to a grandmother. And we used to laugh about it.
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NARRATOR: On the 19th of February 1992, the family welcomed Kieran Michael Austin into the world.
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Harry and I went up to the hospital to see her. And he was just gorgeous. I went out and bought a video camera,
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and I remember doing the video. I was trying to do this professional video. HARRY QUINN (VOICEOVER): Hello.
00:07:35
Hello. It's old Granny Quinn. Come in. Granny Quinn, yeah. [INAUDIBLE] Thank you very much.
00:07:44
NARRATOR: 23-year-old Phillip Austin seemed to rise to the responsibility of fatherhood.
00:07:50
He was very, very hands on. He used to feed him, change his nappy. He was really hands on.
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NARRATOR: Whilst the couple began to settle into their roles as parents, it became evident that Austin's mother, Linda,
00:08:04
had very fixed ideas about how her new grandson should be brought up. Linda was going to be the one that was going to be in charge,
00:08:12
and that was it, you know. And I can understand why Claire got a bit upset about it,
00:08:17
shall I say. She thought, well, you know, why should she tell me what I can and can't do with my baby?
00:08:23
Sort of thing. NARRATOR: Relationships between Phillip Austin and his parents soon soured.
00:08:29
Even at little Kieran's christening, his mother couldn't hide her disdain.
00:08:35
She had a real long face, and not long after that, she stopped seeing them. And didn't speak to them.
00:08:44
They had an argument. She tore up every photo she had of Kieran, and that was it.
00:08:52
There were one or two attempts at reconciliation, but Austin had made his mind up.
00:08:58
He didn't want anything more to do with his parents. I think this is, perhaps, a way
00:09:04
of Austin isolating his family from outside criticism. Because when that's missing, you're not called
00:09:12
to account for your behavior. NARRATOR: When Kieran was just a few months old, Claire fell pregnant again.
00:09:21
Jade Carol Austin was born on the 22nd of April 1993, just 14 months after her brother.
00:09:30
When Jade was born, oh my goodness. I mean, she was just everything. She was so pretty, and she was like a little doll.
00:09:39
NARRATOR: Of course, Harry was ready with his video camera as Kieran met his baby sister for the first time.
00:09:47
There she is. Hello. After Jade had come along, well, I could see a very happy family.
00:09:59
That's what I thought, anyway. NARRATOR: And to make their new family even more complete,
00:10:05
just three months after Jade's arrival, on the 17th of July, Claire and Phillip Austin were married.
00:10:12
It was a lovely little wedding, but only a small one. I did all the video, again.
00:10:19
That was a good day. And I enjoyed it. NARRATOR: Whilst Claire's family and friends turned up
00:10:25
in their droves to congratulate the happy couple, Austin had only two guests. We weren't invited to the wedding.
00:10:33
So none of the family were, because in the end, Phillip cut himself off from everybody.
00:10:39
His half of the church was almost deserted, whereas hers was absolutely packed. If ever there was a demonstration,
00:10:50
a perfect example of the strange nature of their relationship, this was it. The pictures show the perfect family,
00:11:00
but this would soon change. In just over two years, 24-year-old Phillip Austin had gone from living at home with his parents
00:11:09
to being a husband and father to two children. It's the most dramatic change that he's
00:11:16
ever encountered in his life. NARRATOR: As the honeymoon period came to an end, the young family settled in to their new life together.
00:11:29
At the outset, when Kieran was born, Austin did his best to be the perfect partner,
00:11:35
the perfect dad. But as time wore on, he found that more and more difficult to sustain.
00:11:44
And by the time Jade arrived, his sense of isolation was beginning to grow. NARRATOR: Having a toddler and a newborn was all consuming,
00:11:55
and the doting grandparents began to have some concerns about the way Austin was with his young son.
00:12:03
He was too rough with him. You know, he would have him lying and he'd be patting him on the chest and stuff, too hard
00:12:10
though. There was too much roughness and that, for me. And often Kieran would end up crying, you know.
00:12:19
Even when he was playing with Kieran, when you look at some of the family videos, even in play,
00:12:25
he could be quite heavy-handed and, you know, raise a few eyebrows. NARRATOR: The family began to see other things in Austin's
00:12:32
behavior that concerned them. After a time, he started doing strange things, like he bought a golf clubs.
00:12:43
But he didn't play golf. And he bought some weights for weight training, but he never used them.
00:12:53
He bought himself a pair of trainers, over 100 pounds. And 20 years or more ago, that was a lot of money.
00:13:01
NARRATOR: By contrast, Claire was a saver, always squirreling away money so that they
00:13:06
could afford something nice. It caused arguments between the couple. But if she did find out, that would be it.
00:13:14
He'd grab his bag and off he'd go with a few bits and pieces, and she wouldn't see or hear from him
00:13:19
for three or four days. She'd often ring the police and say, he's gone missing.
00:13:24
And they'd find him, and bring him back. That's how he got the nickname Gulliver, because he'd
00:13:30
just go off on his travels. So she'd ring me and say, oh, Gulliver's gone off again.
00:13:35
And he'd come back knowing that she would have him back because she didn't want her children to grow up
00:13:41
in a single parent family home. NARRATOR: As the years went on, Claire learned to deal with Austin's occasional absences.
00:13:50
Kieran and Jade grew to be great friends as well as siblings. Kieran was her protector.
00:13:58
I mean, they'd fight over different things like all brothers and sisters do, but no, he loved her.
00:14:05
He really did. Kieran. He was a grand kid. The questions. Oh, dear me. He would ask you a question, and you'd try and answer it.
00:14:22
And you were giving him an answer, but halfway through the answer, he had another one.
00:14:29
That's just what he was. He was just curiosity about everything. Jade, she was very quiet.
00:14:40
Quite shy. She had a most amazing smile that lit up her face, and she used to blush and go red a lot when he spoke to her.
00:14:48
And she had a little giggle. NARRATOR: When the children started going to school,
00:14:53
Claire found she had time to focus on other things. Claire got a job. She was able to buy her own car.
00:15:02
She had her own income. So she wasn't reliant on Phillip all the time for money.
00:15:08
She had her own social life. All of those sorts of things, I think in some respects, that
00:15:15
started to threaten Austin. Family was the one area of his life that he could dominate,
00:15:22
and that's where his efforts were focused. So the family became like a pressure cooker.
00:15:28
It absorbed a lot of stress and a lot of strain. And when you have an individual like Austin,
00:15:34
that family can be placed in quite a risky situation. Austin wanted to be the controlling
00:15:41
force in that family. And I don't mean that in a particularly aggressive or nasty way, but he wanted to be the alpha male
00:15:49
in that family. And I think he preferred it when Claire was dependent upon him. NARRATOR: The veneer of the perfect family unit
00:16:01
was beginning to wear thin. Fatherhood was not his natural position. He wasn't paternal.
00:16:09
He tried it out, so to speak, but knew it didn't suit him. And he found it very, very difficult to sustain.
00:16:17
Very often, in these situations, it's the children that reveal things. They let things slip.
00:16:24
And that kind of sparks suspicion in other family members who go, hang on a minute.
00:16:28
Things aren't quite right here. NARRATOR: The children began to open up to their grandparents
00:16:33
about some worrying incidents with their father. At one time, with both of them,
00:16:40
we found out they had been doing something horrible where he'd put his hands around the throat.
00:16:46
And Jade had told me. And she said, we don't like it when daddy does that, do we, Kieran?
00:16:53
I was horrified. You know, because that's something you just don't do, do you?
00:16:58
You know, it's not even in fun. And the way the children described it, it was not a joke when he did it.
00:17:10
This is a really significant warning sign for me, because this behavior is very common in domestic abuse
00:17:15
situations. It's a way of a perpetrator showing a victim, I could kill you if I wanted to.
00:17:22
NARRATOR: When Claire found out what had been happening, she was extremely upset, especially as she'd
00:17:28
witnessed something herself which had given her cause for concern. She said that one day, he hit Kieran really hard,
00:17:36
hard enough to make him fall. In front of Claire. And Claire said to him, if you ever
00:17:45
do that again, we're finished. Don't ever touch him like that again, because we
00:17:50
won't be together anymore. I met her in Northampton, and I took her to a solicitor.
00:17:57
And I said, Claire, you've got to get rid of him and start again. I said, you can't live like this.
00:18:05
I said, you know that Harry and I will look after you. I said to her, you know, if you want to come
00:18:11
live here with the kids. But he obviously told her around. And she was here for a few days, but then she went back.
00:18:21
She went back to him. NARRATOR: Claire was very clear that this roughness with Kieran
00:18:27
had to stop. Phillip Austen agreed to go to counseling sessions for help. But that didn't last long.
00:18:35
This is something that he didn't stick to, because I honestly think that he didn't believe
00:18:40
he was doing anything wrong. He literally did this to take the pressure off, and to make it look like he was changing his behavior.
00:18:48
NARRATOR: Nevertheless, the experience seemed to have had a positive effect on Austin.
00:18:54
She told me that he was spending a bit more time with Kieran. They were cooking together, and going for walks,
00:19:00
and playing football. And it seemed to be working and making things easier in the house.
00:19:05
And she said, he's getting help, and I think it's working. I think everything's going to be all right.
00:19:10
NARRATOR: Things appeared to have turned a corner. 31-year-old Austin was making a real effort with the children,
00:19:17
and had stopped being so frivolous with money. In the summer of 2000, they went on holiday to Fuerteventura
00:19:25
with Claire's cousin. When they came back, we picked them up from the airport.
00:19:34
They were full of the [INAUDIBLE].. They'd enjoyed it so much. And they kept talking about going on another one.
00:19:41
And Carol evidently said they cry, you know, come on. You know you can't be going on another holiday straight away.
00:19:48
So I said, they've got plenty money. They've got some saved up in the bank.
00:19:53
NARRATOR: The holiday seemed to have done them all the world of good. Three weeks later, Carol spent the day with Claire
00:20:00
and was pleased to hear that things between the couple were going well. We used to go shopping on a Thursday.
00:20:08
And that day, she told me that they were getting on better than they'd ever done.
00:20:14
NARRATOR: But despite Claire's optimism, the tide was about to turn. On Sunday the 9th of July 2000, they were looking
00:20:22
forward to a family treat. The whole family was supposed to have been going to the cinema.
00:20:28
And again, Austin was helping Kieran, I think it was, with some homework. He got frustrated with Kieran.
00:20:35
He'd ended up shouting at Kieran and getting angry. He'd had a [INAUDIBLE] Kieran, and I
00:20:43
think he went over the top. So probably Claire had a bit of a go at him about that.
00:20:49
And then he went in the bathroom and stayed there for most of the day. NARRATOR: They missed the film.
00:20:56
On the Sunday evening, I phoned up to say if they'd enjoyed it. And he answered the phone, something he never, ever did.
00:21:06
And he said Claire was upstairs. So he was very quiet. And the way he spoke, I thought, there's been an argument.
00:21:14
So I just said, tell Claire I'll phone her tomorrow. The rest of the week, I kept phoning,
00:21:23
and all I got was the answer phone. We thought, well, you know, they're maybe
00:21:29
trying to patch things up. I remember ringing them on the Wednesday, and I left a message
00:21:36
and said, come on, Claire. You know, what are you playing at? You know, what's up?
00:21:43
Have we upset you? Why aren't you ringing us? I didn't start to worry until towards the end of the week.
00:21:50
And her cousin, who they'd been on the holiday with, called in. And I said, have you heard from Claire?
00:22:00
And she said, why? I said, well, I've been ringing and I can't get an answer.
00:22:05
So she said, well, don't tell her that I've told you, but apparently he's playing up again.
00:22:10
But she doesn't want you to know because she doesn't want you to worry. Which is why we didn't do any more.
00:22:18
NARRATOR: By Monday the 17th of July 2000, Kieran and Jade had missed a whole week of school.
00:22:25
Concerned by the children's absence, staff tried to contact the Austin family,
00:22:30
but their calls went unanswered. The phone rang, and it was the school secretary.
00:22:36
I don't know whether it's a mother's intuition, but alarm bells rang, and I just knew it
00:22:43
was going to be something bad. I suppose I kept trusting. They've gone away.
00:22:50
I bet they've booked this holiday and gone away, and just not said anything to anyone.
00:22:56
And my heart was down here, and I didn't know why. NARRATOR: Carol and Harry went straight round
00:23:04
to the family's home. When they arrived, there was no sign of anybody. Carol started talking to a neighbor,
00:23:11
whilst Harry let himself inside using the spare key. For a brief second, his spirits lifted.
00:23:19
There was all letters and stuff behind the door, so I pushed on to get it open. And I thought, yeah.
00:23:26
They must have gone away. Yeah. Anyway, I got in the house, then this most awful smell hit me.
00:23:37
I went down the passageway towards the kitchen, and went into the kitchen. And I just saw Claire lying there, blood everywhere.
00:23:49
And she had marks on her wrists. It looked like she maybe cut her wrists. Because murder, you know, murder was not on my mind.
00:24:07
So I run to the front door, just as Carol's come in. I said, Carol, don't come in.
00:24:14
Claire's done something to herself. His face was just dreadful. I said, no, she hasn't.
00:24:22
I said, she wouldn't. I just went straight in. And I went into the kitchen and Claire laid on the floor.
00:24:29
And I just stood there. NARRATOR: Lying lifeless beside Claire was Dandy, one of the family's pet poodles.
00:24:38
As Carol took the scene in, her thoughts turned to her grandchildren. I said, oh my God, where are those children?
00:24:48
And I went straight up the stairs, Harry following me. And there was Kieran, laying across his bed.
00:24:57
Carol stayed with Kieran, and I remember shouting, not Jade. Please not Jade. And I ran into Jade's room and she was lying on the floor.
00:25:09
And I remember thinking, this bastard. How could you leave your daughter lying on the floor like this?
00:25:20
NARRATOR: The children had been strangled. You read books. You see things on television, you know.
00:25:28
What the police need. They need somewhere that is at least disturbed, so we didn't touch the body.
00:25:36
I mean, I wanted to pick up my granddaughter and put her on the bed. I wanted to do that more than anything,
00:25:42
but I knew that wasn't the right thing to do. NARRATOR: Carol and Harry's world had been shattered.
00:25:51
They felt certain that the only person who could possibly be responsible was Austin.
00:25:57
I know. I know. He wasn't there. Where was he? NARRATOR: Former detective inspector Andy Tennet remembers
00:26:14
visiting the family home. At first, everything looked normal, but then we noticed ornaments had been knocked over
00:26:20
and there was a slipper on the stairs. And then in the downstairs toilet, right in the corner,
00:26:27
was one of Claire's earrings. And then in the hallway, there was another one of her earrings.
00:26:32
So quite clearly, something had happened that caused that amount of disruption. Claire was somebody who had had self-defense training,
00:26:42
so when Austin did attack her, she put up a really significant fight. NARRATOR: The evidence showed that there'd
00:26:49
been a struggle which started upstairs in the couple's bedroom, and ended with Claire's lifeless body in the kitchen.
00:26:57
The only person absent from the house was Austin. But initially, we couldn't just say, well, he's our offender.
00:27:05
He could have been kidnapped. It could have been some sort of revenge killing. He could have been out the country.
00:27:14
We just didn't know. NARRATOR: As the police forensics team began a lengthy examination of the house,
00:27:21
Carol and Harry had to break the devastating news to family and friends. Later that night, Diane was woken by the phone ringing.
00:27:31
It was Carol. And I said, why are you living this time of the night? And she said, I have something horrible to tell you,
00:27:41
but I need to tell you now because I don't want you to wake up in the morning
00:27:45
and see the news on the telly. So I said, I don't understand. What are you talking about?
00:27:52
So she said, Phil's killed them all. And I said, what you mean? She said, they're gone.
00:28:01
NARRATOR: The next day, the police continued their investigation. There was no other sign at the scene of any ancillary crime,
00:28:12
if you like. You know, there was no evidence of drugs. There was no evidence of a break in, as an example.
00:28:19
So with that, as your other evidence begins to build up, then you begin to focus on the only person
00:28:26
missing from the house, that being Austin. NARRATOR: Once the forensics examination of the scene
00:28:33
had been completed, the search team was sent in. That was when we found the other dog that
00:28:40
had been killed and sort of hidden away next to a tumble dryer. And then in the bedroom, we found a pile of men's clothing.
00:28:49
Amongst that was a pair of beige cargo pants, and when those were unfolded onto some paper,
00:28:55
quite clearly, we could see blood spattering. NARRATOR: The forensic evidence on the cargo pants
00:29:02
suggested that the killer had been wearing them when Claire was attacked. Having discovered that Austin's car was missing,
00:29:10
the police put out an appeal for any sightings and received a call from a member of the public.
00:29:16
A car had been parked outside her house for about a week. So we had it lifted and taken to a forensic garage
00:29:24
where it was, again, examined right the way through for any evidence that might be
00:29:29
connected to the crime scene. NARRATOR: In the back of the car, investigators found the remains of a McDonald's breakfast,
00:29:38
a car magazine with several cars circled, and a carrier bag containing a rubber mallet.
00:29:45
The sort of thing you'd use, perhaps, for tapping in tent peg and the like. That had got a significant bend halfway down.
00:29:52
And the head certainly appeared that it had blood on it. And this became apparent that this
00:29:59
may well be a weapon that had been used in the attack on Claire. NARRATOR: It didn't take the police long
00:30:06
to discover that Austin had purchased one of the cars he'd circled as a getaway vehicle.
00:30:12
The evidence was mounting, and it all pointed in one direction. Austin becomes most definitely our suspect.
00:30:21
We're not treating him as a potential witness or another victim anymore. We definitely think he's our man.
00:30:28
NARRATOR: From witness statements and the evidence they discovered, investigators determined that the murders had
00:30:34
taken place on the 10th of July, a week before the bodies were found. This meant that Phillip Austin had now been on the run
00:30:42
for more than seven days. This is a man who has just killed his family, so it's very important that the police
00:30:51
track him down because only he knows what he's going to do next. It's vital that this person is apprehended.
00:30:58
NARRATOR: Investigators piecing together the evidence had managed to work out some of Austin's movements
00:31:04
on that fateful day. Early on Monday the 10th of July, he'd finished his night shift at the warehouse,
00:31:10
returned home, and had then taken the children to school. Now normally, he'd have driven home, talked to Claire,
00:31:20
gone to bed. Not this morning. He books an appointment at a massage parlor in Northampton.
00:31:31
He goes to that appointment, and he ends up having full sex with the lady that's
00:31:37
providing the massage for him. He then starts to head home. He goes into a local DIY store near where they live
00:31:44
and purchases a rubber mallet. He buys this mallet because it's something he's
00:31:50
planning to use in the murders. And I think this emphasizes how premeditated domestic homicides
00:31:56
are. These men don't just snap or lose control. They plan them over a long period of time.
00:32:03
NARRATOR: From the evidence they discovered, the police pieced together the moments
00:32:07
that led up to Claire's death. Austin had returned home, armed with a mallet.
00:32:13
He found Claire upstairs. A fight starts in the bedroom, and it continues down the stairs.
00:32:20
Claire goes to the front door and opens it. Austin comes up and slams it, so that no one can help her.
00:32:30
He is trying to strangle her, but Claire, she gets away from him. She overpowers him and pushes him off, and runs back
00:32:40
through the house. But she ends up on the floor in the kitchen. And Austin's on her straight away,
00:32:46
and then begins a sustained violent attack. NARRATOR: Austin continued to strangle Claire and beat her
00:32:55
with the mallet, before stabbing her with such force that the knife broke. He then goes back to the kitchen drawer,
00:33:02
takes another knife, continues to stab her with that. And then retrieves her bra from the wash
00:33:11
basket that's in the kitchen, and again, throttles her with that. Any one of those assaults would have been enough to kill her.
00:33:23
After he's killed his wife, self-preservation kicks in. So he changes his clothes.
00:33:28
He goes to his wife's workplace and he tells her colleagues she's not going to be in for a while
00:33:33
because she's injured her back. Now the very fact that he's able to go through
00:33:37
with this rather convincing performance does show me how little remorse he has. NARRATOR: 31-year-old Phillip Austin
00:33:45
had subjected his wife, the mother of his children, to a lengthy and brutal attack.
00:33:51
Later that day, he killed his son and daughter too. The evidence proved the he'd planned the murders,
00:33:57
and his getaway, in advance. Back in the incident room, investigators had been following the latest information
00:34:05
on Austin's whereabouts. Bank records revealed that he'd been using his debit card
00:34:11
whilst on a tour of the North of England, visiting the seaside and staying in bed and breakfasts.
00:34:18
Once you come to the realization of what you've done, most people would probably just give
00:34:25
themselves up, or kill them-- kill themselves. But they wouldn't go off on a holiday, which is what he did.
00:34:36
He was a quiet customer. He paid his bills on time. Might go to the pub for a drink in the evening.
00:34:42
But in effect, was keeping quite a low profile and wasn't really raising anybody's alarm bells.
00:34:49
NARRATOR: Despite following up on every lead, the police still hadn't caught up with Austin.
00:34:55
However, on the 20th of July, they had a breakthrough. A member of the public in the Lake District
00:35:02
spotted a man in a car acting suspiciously, and called the police. An officer responded, and found that the man
00:35:10
had cut his wrists. And in the conversation, very early on, when the officer says to him, well, come on.
00:35:17
You know, who are you? Austin says, well, you all know me. I'm the man who's killed his wife and family.
00:35:24
NARRATOR: It quickly became apparent that his self-inflicted injuries were not serious.
00:35:29
I think what he's trying to do here is place himself in the role of the victim.
00:35:33
Look at me. Poor me. NARRATOR: Austin was flown back down to Northampton to face questioning.
00:35:41
Potentially, still at that time, he could allege somebody else had committed the offenses.
00:35:46
Or he could allege, again, that, you know, he'd been kidnapped and abandoned up north.
00:35:51
Or he'd got amnesia, or anything. We didn't know. But actually, Austin gave us a full account almost from as
00:35:58
soon as we turned the tapes on. NARRATOR: Under police caution, the 31-year-old detailed the attack on his wife, explaining
00:36:06
that it started with a row. He says that at some point during that argument, the red mist comes down.
00:36:14
And he takes a swing at her, forgetting that he's got the mallet in his hand.
00:36:20
And he catches her on the arm. They then end up having a full-blown fight. NARRATOR: That version of events did not wash with Andy.
00:36:31
At what point does that red mist stop? Because during that assault, particularly once they're
00:36:36
in the kitchen, he's making decisions about where he's going to go, what he's going to use,
00:36:41
what implement he's going to pick up next. That doesn't sound like red mist to me.
00:36:46
That sounds like a man who's intent on murdering his wife. NARRATOR: The police already knew that Austin had purchased
00:36:54
a car before collecting eight-year-old Kieran and his seven-year-old sister Jade from school.
00:37:00
But Austin revealed he'd taken the children on a drive lasting seven hours. He goes over to the East Coast.
00:37:09
They buy fish and chips, and he buys the children some drinks. But even at that stage, he's lacing
00:37:16
their food and their drinks with a herbal sleep agent. And they only really go home when Austin's satisfied
00:37:24
that they are very sleepy. NARRATOR: Austin claimed that he returned home, having forgotten what he'd done earlier that day.
00:37:34
He recounted that he put the children to bed, and later that night, Jade woke up.
00:37:40
He's trying to make out that he had some kind of episode in which he killed his wife
00:37:44
and he killed the dogs. And it's only when his daughter asked him for a glass of water,
00:37:48
and he goes in the kitchen to get that that he sees the bodies and he remembers what he's done.
00:37:53
And then that triggers his later behavior. And I think that this is an absolute load of nonsense.
00:37:58
Austin remembers exactly what he's done, because he's following through a very
00:38:03
carefully constructed plan. He says, at that point, the only way forward he could say
00:38:11
was to kill the children. This isn't a red mist decision. This isn't, you know, a loss of temper.
00:38:19
This is a reasoned decision that a man has made, that he's going to murder both of his children.
00:38:28
NARRATOR: Whilst he was retelling these horrific crimes against his own family, Phillip Austin showed
00:38:35
no sign of emotion or remorse. At the end of the interview, I recall that the officers
00:38:43
were saying they had asked him how he felt about what he'd done. And after a moment's thought, Austin
00:38:52
said, well, I'm not proud. And that was the sort of most we ever got out of him in terms of how he felt.
00:39:02
NARRATOR: Once in prison, Phillip Austin contacted his aunt and uncle for the first time
00:39:08
in more than eight years. He was allowed to phone somebody up. And the only person he phoned was Roger, my husband.
00:39:16
Didn't phone his mum and dad. Wouldn't have nothing to do with him. And we went to see him.
00:39:22
And asked him, you know, what the hell are you doing? You know, do you realise? And all he was worried about was things in the house
00:39:29
that belonged to him. And Roger slammed his fist on the table that we're sitting at, and he said,
00:39:36
you've got more to worry about than the things in the house. And I just walked out crying.
00:39:42
NARRATOR: Over the next four months, as the trial drew near, Austin's legal team
00:39:47
attempted to put forward a defense of not guilty on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
00:39:54
The way it was summed up for me was they were trying to get a psychiatrist that would
00:39:57
say he was mad and not bad. And nobody would. So he went to trial as bad. NARRATOR: On the 22nd of March 2001
00:40:08
at Northhampton Crown Court, Phillip Austin changed his plea to guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison
00:40:15
with a minimum term of 15 years. The prosecution felt this was too lenient, and appealed.
00:40:23
David Blunkett, then Home Secretary, increased it to 20. But that equates, if you just count three lives, to just
00:40:33
over six years per life. Less than that, if you count the two dogs. That's not justice.
00:40:43
If he would have jumped out of the bushes and killed women who were jogging in the park,
00:40:46
we would never see this individual out in public again. I think the fact that he killed his family has
00:40:52
significantly reduced the length of the sentence that he received. Now, for me, for the same behavior
00:40:58
to be given a different level of severity depending on who the victims are is absolutely ludicrous.
00:41:04
NARRATOR: Austin was behind bars, but the impact of his actions had a devastating effect on Claire, Kieran and Jade's
00:41:13
family and friends. Facing the reality of it, and the reality of what your future is going to be like, or not like.
00:41:23
She thought the future was going to be this wonderful future with the kids involved, and all down the years, you know,
00:41:32
and the children, they would have an-- and suddenly it's gone. Snuffed out like putting a candle out.
00:41:42
NARRATOR: In the years since the murders, Carol and Harry have had help from a counselor.
00:41:48
She was absolutely wonderful. Really, really wonderful. Taught us how to cope with things.
00:41:55
How to deal with it. Like if you start to have really bad thoughts, replace them with a happy one.
00:42:05
And I always replace it with seeing Jade and Kieran standing at the window, waiting to go out with us for a day.
00:42:11
And they'd be jumping up and down and running out to the door to come running up the path to us.
00:42:20
NARRATOR: There is the possibility in the near future that Phillip Austin may be set free.
00:42:25
Those that knew Claire and the children hope they will never see that day. He's never said sorry.
00:42:31
He's never said why. He doesn't seem to have any remorse of any kind. He's a very, very dangerous man.
00:42:42
I think the level of violence that he used against Claire was completely unwarranted and unnecessary.
00:42:51
And he had plenty of opportunity not to kill the children. Does that make him evil?
00:42:59
Yes. He's a monster to be able to do what he's done, and still live with himself, calmly.
00:43:09
He went on a tour after slaughtering his family. You must have an empty soul, or no soul at all,
00:43:18
to be able to do that. NARRATOR: We may never know the real motivations behind Austin's actions.
00:43:25
What is certain is that his claims of a red mist moment cannot possibly be true.
00:43:31
His crimes were carefully planned. He purchased a mallet for the sole purpose of murdering
00:43:36
his wife, before calmly collecting his children from school, drugging and strangling them.
00:43:43
Making Phillip Austin one of the world's most evil killers. [MUSIC PLAYING]