00:00:04
[music playing] NARRATOR: A peaceful
village, a couple resolved to enjoy the new year.
00:00:13
But gym teacher Helen Almey
and her lover Martin Griffiths simply don't know the
danger that they're
00:00:19
in from Helen's former husband. He left the house with
two large kitchen knives and got in his car.
00:00:32
His own mother
telephones the police. My son has taken two knives. NARRATOR: Minutes later,
head teacher Rhys Hancock
00:00:41
also calls 999 with
news about the woman who was once his wife. It was just horrific.
00:00:48
It was almost something
out of a horror film. NARRATOR: Had jealousy driven a
respected head teacher to kill?
00:00:57
[theme music] [music playing] Rhys Hancock and
Helen Almey appeared to be a match made in heaven.
00:01:33
Helen and Rhys had met
while they were at university. They were both training
to be teachers.
00:01:43
They've known each other
for a very long time. They've been in a relationship
for a very long time.
00:01:48
NARRATOR: In 2014, they
bought a 400,000-pound house in rural Derbyshire. It's a beautiful
part in England.
00:01:55
The village of Duffield
is quite a quaint place, really, quite an affluent area.
00:02:01
ANDY DONE-JOHNSON: A lot of
money naturally moves into it. There's quite a few
retired football managers
00:02:07
that are residents there. Rolls Royce is a big employer. There's nice quaint wine
bars, nice public houses,
00:02:15
nice restaurants. It has everything that one
would wish for in a village. There's no sense of
crime, no sense of danger.
00:02:24
The most dangerous
thing in Duffield is probably the main road
that runs through it.
00:02:29
NARRATOR: The couple were doing
well in their teaching careers. He was a head of a
special needs school.
00:02:34
She was a popular PE teacher. Rhys and Helen Hancock have
got a huge amount of synergy
00:02:39
in their lives. He's a high achiever. ANDY DONE-JOHNSON:
He was described, actually, as a very caring
and committed and passionate
00:02:47
teacher. EMMA KENNY: To become a head
teacher at 39 is a big deal. But he also shows that he wants
to be at the top of his game.
00:02:53
He likes power. NARRATOR: Helen, meanwhile, was
a much loved member of staff at a high school in
Burton, 15 miles away.
00:03:00
EMMA KENNY: Helen is
one of those people who is the full package. She's very beautiful to look at.
00:03:04
People describe her as dazzling. She's a really keen athlete. She keeps herself fit.
00:03:09
She's a PE teacher. And she's somebody that's
socially on a community base is really well liked.
00:03:15
She really is one of those
people who has it all. Helen grew up in Duffield. She attended the local primary
schools and secondary schools.
00:03:26
New Zealand Lane,
where she lived, is literally around the
corner from the school
00:03:30
that she attended. So she was just
one of those people who everybody seemed to know.
00:03:35
She was out that she was very
engaged with her community. NARRATOR: Behind the
apparently idyllic facade,
00:03:42
all was not well in
the couple's marriage, as a local newspaper reporter
would one day discover.
00:03:47
My name is Andy Done-Johnson. I'm a journalist specializing
in crime and court reporting.
00:03:54
And I've done that for
publications in Derbyshire and the East Midlands for
the past 20 odd years.
00:04:03
I spoke to a number
of local residents. I was made aware that there had
been problems in the marriage
00:04:10
on a fairly on, off
basis, ever since the year they got together. NARRATOR: One of those problems
was Rhys Hancock's infidelity.
00:04:20
He'd had an affair
with a colleague and lost his job
because of that. But he pulled himself back
and got himself a headship.
00:04:29
His affair led to a lot of
rows, a lot of fighting, a lot of screaming and shouting.
00:04:36
NARRATOR: Despite everything,
the couple stayed together. It's always Helen
that forgives him.
00:04:43
NARRATOR: In 2016, things
began to fall apart. They'd had an argument. He'd thrown a cup at her,
which hadn't hit her,
00:04:54
but it had smashed on the wall. And some of the shrapnel
had landed on the children.
00:04:59
The neighbors were concerned. They couldn't ignore it. You know, this wasn't
hidden domestic abuse.
00:05:09
This was very visible
domestic abuse. And everybody seemed to know
about it in the community.
00:05:15
I don't think he was very well
liked in the local community. I think some of
his dirty laundry
00:05:21
had probably sort of seeped out. And so, you know, people
knew some of the things
00:05:26
that he'd got involved with. There's a lot of
reports from neighbors of constant arguments.
00:05:33
JANE MONCKTON-SMITH:
The neighbors talked about the marriage. It was quite noisy and violent.
00:05:44
NARRATOR: Helen
reached a decision. It had been a nuisance
in the relationship for a very long time.
00:05:51
I think that the perception
was that she was very forgiving for a very long time.
00:05:55
And enough was enough. He'd gone too far. NARRATOR: Helen threw him
out, although Hancock's
00:06:03
version of events on social
media told a different story. Posted on Facebook, I
want to see less of Helen.
00:06:11
I don't want her to be
part of my life anymore. He announced on
Facebook that he never
00:06:15
wants to see his wife again. TONY KENT: To be washing
his private linen in public,
00:06:20
as a man who is certainly,
at that stage, on the route to becoming a headmaster
in a specialist school,
00:06:27
has got to be deemed unusual. NARRATOR: As before
in their relationship, things went from one
extreme to the other.
00:06:34
The marriage between Helen
and Hancock had been up and down and up and down for
a very long time.
00:06:43
They have periods where they
are back in a relationship. They have periods where
they're not in a relationship.
00:06:48
She kept ending
things with him, getting him to leave
the family home. He would come back, and he
would manipulate the situation,
00:06:58
probably through guilt. NARRATOR: Within
months, Hancock was back at the New Zealand Lane house.
00:07:05
Now they've got children. They've got a house together. They've got ties. And as a result of that,
while they drift apart,
00:07:13
they also drift together again. NARRATOR: He even returned
to Facebook, this time,
00:07:18
to pay gushing
tribute to the wife who stood by him yet again. It gives us a sense
that, emotionally,
00:07:25
he's not quite balanced. We could take that as
being the first hint, that what was going on
in his domestic life
00:07:32
was having an impact
on his mental health. ANDY DONE-JOHNSON:
They'd separated on a number of occasions.
00:07:37
I think in 2016, they got as far
as the family court to divorce. And at that point, they both
decided to give it another go.
00:07:46
NARRATOR: Later that year, Helen
gave birth to a third child. 2016 onwards,
it's breaking down.
00:07:53
It slowly, [inaudible]
drip feed of a relationship deteriorating. I think Rhys caused
her just sadness
00:08:01
more than anything else, I
think, in those later years. NARRATOR: For the
next three years,
00:08:08
the couple lurched between
separation and reconciliation. And now we see the
marriage deteriorating.
00:08:14
It clearly didn't get back
to where it needed to be. The reality is
the relationship
00:08:19
of some sort, the
messy relationship continues to mid 2019. And yet it continues
in a bad way.
00:08:28
NARRATOR: That
summer, Helen finally decided enough was enough. She demanded that
Hancock move out.
00:08:36
And she's got to that
point where she's thought, I'm worth more than you. And she leaves him.
00:08:42
Finally, she
ended it completely. He was forced to move out
and go and live with his mother
00:08:49
in a village called
Etwall, which is sort of South
Derbyshire, about 10, 15 miles from Duffield.
00:08:56
Everything else,
the whole facade, has come crashing
down around him. NARRATOR: The successful high
achiever was in his late 30s,
00:09:03
back living with his mum. The marriage is over. The house is his wife's. The children are with his wife.
00:09:12
For Helen, it becomes almost
like a new lease of life. When she finally
said, this is it,
00:09:18
and got him out of the
home, all the neighbors were relieved, happy for her. So that gives us an insight
into how bad this marriage was.
00:09:30
TONY KENT: She struggled
to make this marriage work. And when she's accepted
that it's over,
00:09:34
when she's accepted
that it can't work, it's been almost like she's
been gifted back her freedom,
00:09:40
and she's been gifted
back her future. NARRATOR: Finally free
to move on with her life,
00:09:45
Helen took a decisive new step. She met somebody else. NARRATOR: What would happen
when her violent estranged
00:09:53
husband found out? With everything falling
around his ears, there's got to be a residue
of hope, isn't there?
00:09:59
There's got to be a residue
of, I can get this back. We can make this work. We can have it all again.
00:10:06
And unfortunately,
then the time comes that he discovers he can't. Everything had become
irretrievable for him.
00:10:15
It was, I think, desperate. I think for the first
time in this marriage, Rhys Hancock realized
that he'd lost.
00:10:33
NARRATOR: Newly separated from
her abusive husband, sports fan Helen was rediscovering
the single life.
00:10:40
Helen was very, very sporty. I mean, she was just fanatical
about fitness, about exercise.
00:10:46
You know, she ran. She went to the gym. You know, she was just
naturally good at sport,
00:10:51
and that was her thing. She begins to engage
more again in life, in the community.
00:10:59
She becomes Helen
again because she doesn't have this distraction. Helen's very
community orientated,
00:11:05
and that says something about
her personality and character. She's one of those empathic
and compassionate people.
00:11:10
So she's part of the
neighborhood watch. She likes being involved
in community sport.
00:11:14
She plays for local teams. This is somebody who
likes to be social. NARRATOR: It was through
sport, more specifically,
00:11:23
the Shelton Striders Club, that
Helen met Martin Griffiths. She met Martin at a running
club, which she attended, which
00:11:31
Martin attended, I think
which, at some time, both she and Rhys Hancock
had been members of.
00:11:38
NARRATOR: Jeanette Stevenson
is a criminal barrister working for the Crown
Prosecution Service.
00:11:44
Helen was a very sporty lady,
very into outdoor pursuits. Martin also was into climbing
and things like that.
00:11:53
When Helen meets
Martin Griffiths, she really does meet
a perfect reflection. He is sporty, athletic.
00:12:00
He's driven. He's creative. He has his own creative agency. So he's wealthy. He's done really well.
00:12:05
But what really underpins who
he is, is his personality. He's lovely. JEANETTE STEVENSON: He
wasn't disliked by anybody.
00:12:12
He was the kind of man that
was a bit of a go-getter. You know, he'd got
his own business.
00:12:18
He's like a
breath of fresh air. Helen falls for March. Martin falls for Helen. It is a very, very
quick relationship.
00:12:27
NARRATOR: Martin was eight
years older and also separated. By late 2019, he and
Helen had become lovers.
00:12:36
Helen, for the first
time in quite a long time, was herself again. She wasn't-- she
wasn't downtrodden.
00:12:43
She wasn't troubled. In those months
together, they really do feel like they've got
their second chance at life.
00:12:49
She'd found somebody else. And she was happy. NARRATOR: As Helen
looked to the future,
00:12:54
her estranged
husband, Rhys Hancock, had taken a sobering
trip into the past, living at his mother's house in
Etwall, 15 minutes' drive away.
00:13:05
While Rhys is kidding himself
somewhat that this is all rebuildable, while he's
in his mum's house,
00:13:13
persuading himself that
he can have it all again, well, Helen isn't. Helen is rebuilding her life.
00:13:19
Helen is building her future. NARRATOR: At the
same time, Helen tried to maintain contact
between her children
00:13:26
and their father. Rhys was attending the family
home to look after the children so she could go to work.
00:13:33
I think that probably
contributed quite significantly to Rhys thinking that
there was a chance
00:13:39
of the relationship rekindling. She'd always taken
him back in the past. I think he very much
felt that she was
00:13:46
going to take him back again. And the fact that he was
being allowed into the house
00:13:49
was, you know, probably a
fairly big part of that. NARRATOR: In late
December 2019, reality
00:13:58
dawned for Rhys Hancock. When he went to
the family home, it became quite clear
to him that there
00:14:04
was no future with Helen. It seems to be the first time
that he's had that really
00:14:10
driven home for him. Helen was living in the
home she'd always lived in. And she had a new relationship.
00:14:21
NARRATOR: This was all
a revelation to Rhys. And it prompted a
furious outburst.
00:14:28
And his reaction was extreme. His reaction was almost violent. There was a big
argument at Christmas.
00:14:38
He reacted aggressively
enough that Helen had to call the police. JANE MONCKTON-SMITH:
She had phoned 999.
00:14:44
The police were aware. The police had
called at the house. Nothing happens. The police don't arrest him.
00:14:51
It's left as it is. He goes home. NARRATOR: Christmas 2019,
Hancock learns something
00:15:00
he doesn't like about Martin. This man had come
around on Christmas Day and cooked them
breakfast in the morning.
00:15:11
I think the inference
there being that he'd, obviously, spent the night. Hancock found out that this
new man had been in the house.
00:15:20
That was the first that
Rhys Hancock knew about it. NARRATOR: Rhys
Hancock was incensed.
00:15:25
He still thought that Helen
was his wife, his property. How dare this man be at
my house over Christmas
00:15:35
with my children? He feels entitled to certain
things-- a wife, his children, to be in charge of the
wife and the children,
00:15:45
the home, all sorts of things. He doesn't just want them. He is entitled to them.
00:15:52
And there's a big difference. NARRATOR: Hancock
spent the next few days checking out the children's
story for himself.
00:16:00
He started to
obsess and started to make his own investigations. He was constantly pestering
Helen's family and friends,
00:16:11
trying to find out
information about Martin. Who is this guy? Who is my wife seeing?
00:16:18
He was quite quickly
able to establish that she'd met this person
through the running club.
00:16:24
And I think through
the running club, he was kind of able to establish
who Martin Griffiths was,
00:16:30
where he lived. NARRATOR: In his
investigations, Rhys Hancock paid a visit to Helen's father.
00:16:37
He turned up with, you know, a
bunch of flowers and a present. And he was really trying
to appear like he was
00:16:45
just paying a friendly visit. But he was there
specifically to find out about Martin Griffiths.
00:16:53
NARRATOR: Rhys even
managed to track down Martin's estranged wife. He was able to make contact
with the Martin Griffiths's
00:17:04
former partner via social media. And again, he was asking
very, very probing questions.
00:17:10
He certainly
wanted people to know that he knew about this man. He now knew who he was.
00:17:15
And now he knew where he lived. He very much saw himself as
the injured party in all this.
00:17:21
Over the days from
Boxing Day to New Year, he's clearly wound
himself up more and more.
00:17:29
NARRATOR: If he wanted to
punish Helen and Martin, he would have to bide his time.
00:17:33
In between Christmas and
New Year, Martin and Helen had taken a vacation to Snowdonia.
00:17:41
And they'd been climbing there. NARRATOR: Then Rhys Hancock
picked up useful information.
00:17:48
Hancock finds out that Helen
and Martin, her new boyfriend, are going back to the family
home to celebrate New Year.
00:18:00
NARRATOR: Surely, they were
safe from Rhys, the pillar of the local community-- or perhaps not.
00:18:17
December 31, 2019,
two very different evenings unfold for Helen
Almey and her estranged
00:18:23
husband, Rhys Hancock. She went out with
her new boyfriend to celebrate New Year's Eve.
00:18:30
She's got a really
nice career man. He's treating her wonderfully. They're happy.
00:18:35
They seem to be
unifying their families. JANE MONCKTON-SMITH: They wanted
to spend the new year together.
00:18:40
They were probably
celebrating their new life. NARRATOR: For Hancock,
things looked much bleaker.
00:18:47
How dare anybody
have a new beginning whilst he's suffering,
living with his mum.
00:18:53
He's a high achiever. Things go right for Rhys. Things don't fail. Marriages don't fail.
00:18:58
But it had failed. Probably because of
the type of person, he was feeling a bit
humiliated by the whole thing.
00:19:05
NARRATOR: Hancock
went to the local pub. He got talking to women in
the pub and, for some reason,
00:19:13
made a brief visit back
to his mother's house with these two women. Heaven knows what on
Earth that conversation
00:19:20
might have been. NARRATOR: When he finally
returned alone from the pub after seeing in the new
year, Hancock's jealousy
00:19:26
over Helen and Martin erupted. He was very down. He was very morose. But he was also very,
very aggressive.
00:19:34
He was not going to
allow that to happen. EMMA KENNY: You can
imagine him sitting at home
00:19:40
and really feeling triggered
by this knowledge, the idea that someone else is
sleeping in his bed
00:19:46
with his wife in his home. And now, this next year
is going to be their year. And he can't stand it.
00:19:54
He can't bear it. At some point
on New Year's Eve, he made the decision how he
was going to deal with this.
00:20:06
NARRATOR: The first person
he told was his mother. It's not unusual for
people like Hancock
00:20:14
to tell people what
they intend to do. And part of the reason
they feel so comfortable
00:20:21
sometimes is that they
feel so justified. They think that whoever
they tell is automatically
00:20:29
going to be in solidarity
with them, is going to say, I understand. NARRATOR: What had Rhys
Hancock decided to do?
00:20:37
He'd turn around to his mum
and said, it's them or me. NARRATOR: Drunk and ranting,
Rhys Hancock's outburst
00:20:46
left his mother Christine
seriously frightened. He's got himself into this
kind of psychological fit,
00:20:53
where he's outraged and
humiliated, but most of all, because he feels so
entitled, he feels justified.
00:21:01
And she witnesses this. She sees him descending into
more and more of a depression,
00:21:07
of an anger of the
kind of conditions that you don't want to see
someone you love being in.
00:21:13
He's in the darkest
possible place. Now his mum, who is
probably much more reasonable,
00:21:20
is looking at her
son and thinking, oh, this is really serious. His mother panicked,
but was able to, I think,
00:21:30
talk him down. One, I've got
to protect Helen. Two, I don't want my son to
go to prison for the rest
00:21:40
of his life over this. And, you know, and
I've got grandchildren who I want to protect as well.
00:21:47
NARRATOR: Christine
thought she'd succeeded in settling her son down. He was sat in the
chair quite soon after.
00:21:54
He was quite calm,
having a drink. His mother fell asleep,
I think content that he
00:22:00
was all right, that he was over
with the worst of this episode. NARRATOR: In fact, Hancock was
brooding as furiously as ever.
00:22:09
Now, unbeknown to her,
Rhys then got in his car and drove to his former
home, where Helen and Martin
00:22:22
were either in bed or
still out and would be returning too soon. And he sat outside the
house for quite some time.
00:22:32
NARRATOR: Whatever
he was contemplating, Rhys Hancock wasn't ready to
put his plan into action--
00:22:37
not yet. ANDY DONE-JOHNSON: So Rhys then
returned to his mother's house in Etwall and woke her up at
about 4 o'clock in the morning
00:22:48
and said, "I'm
going to kill them." NARRATOR: Having revealed
his intentions to his mother,
00:22:56
Hancock tried to sabotage
any attempts that she might make to prevent him. He then took his mother's
landline and disconnected it.
00:23:09
He made efforts to disconnect
the internet cabling. And he asked her for
her own mobile phone,
00:23:17
which she didn't
know where it was and wouldn't give it to him. So at that point, he actually
patted his mother down,
00:23:24
searching for this mobile phone. NARRATOR: Before heading
back out into the night,
00:23:30
Hancock armed himself. Eventually he left the
house with two knives, two large kitchen knives,
and got in his car
00:23:42
and drove back to Duffield. NARRATOR: As Rhys Hancock
made the 15-minute drive to Duffield, his
mother was distraught.
00:23:51
His mother was able
to find her mobile phone and, at that point, made a
fairly frantic call to police,
00:23:59
explaining what had just
happened and what she feared was going to happen. His own mother
telephones the police.
00:24:09
My son has taken two knives. He is going to this address. He is going to hurt
this person, Helen.
00:24:17
She even gives the police
Helen's phone number. It must have been
awful for the mum
00:24:22
and is so much pressure
for her to have actually phoned the police. NARRATOR: Rhys was on his
way to his wife's home
00:24:28
with one thing on his mind-- revenge. At that point,
psychologically, nothing was going to stop him.
00:24:41
He was really wound up. He was angry. He was outraged. He was humiliated. He's got the knives.
00:24:46
He knew what he was going to do. He went round
there, all fired up. NARRATOR: The police
were well aware
00:24:53
of Hancock's track record. They'd been called to
a threatening incident just a few days earlier.
00:24:58
Now, they tried to
raise the alarm. The police had been told
that he was on his way,
00:25:04
that he intended to
harm Helen and Martin, and that he had knives with him. The police operator
that answered
00:25:10
that 999 call was able to
retrieve Helen's mobile phone. And she tried for
10 minutes or so,
00:25:19
whilst the police
were on the way, to phone Helen and warn her. The police did call Helen, but
it went straight to voicemail.
00:25:30
The calls were unanswered. NARRATOR: It was a
missed opportunity that could have changed everything.
00:25:37
Had Helen had that
phone on that night, she might have been pre-warned. NARRATOR: Sometime after
4:00 AM on New Year's Day,
00:25:47
Rhys Hancock pulled up
in New Zealand Lane. He doesn't even
slam the car door. He just parks it in
the middle of the road
00:25:55
because he knows this is
the end of the line for him. This is a man who is in a
frenzy, an absolute frenzy.
00:26:04
I imagine he didn't even
slam the doors because he's onto the fact his mother
will have called the police,
00:26:08
and he's very time limited. That's how determined he is. NARRATOR: Determined
he may have been,
00:26:14
but he still had to
get inside the house. He had his own
key, but Helen's key was on the other side,
in the front door.
00:26:24
He couldn't get
in the front door. So he climbed the fence
into the back garden.
00:26:31
NARRATOR: There, the trusting
nature of Duffield Village life worked in Hancock's favor.
00:26:37
She had left the
back door open, which sometimes people
do when they feel they're
00:26:43
living in a safe environment. So he just let
himself into the house. Had it been that
night that she'd
00:26:49
lock that door, what happened
might not have happened. NARRATOR: Helen and her
new love, Martin Griffiths,
00:26:57
were asleep upstairs. JEANETTE STEVENSON: They'd been
out for a drink that night,
00:27:03
retired back to
Helen's house, where, of course, they perhaps carried
on the celebrations together.
00:27:11
Went to bed at whatever
time it was, you know, both comfortably got
into bed together.
00:27:19
He knew they were together. He picked up multiple knives. He knew he was going
to get them together.
00:27:26
NARRATOR: What happened
in the next few minutes would appall the
officers who responded
00:27:30
to a chilling 999 call. He's on a mission, and
that mission is to kill. [music playing]
00:27:51
NARRATOR: Driven by
jealousy, Rhys Hancock was out for revenge on the wife that
he believed had betrayed him,
00:27:56
and her lover. Hancock had decided
that he was not only going to kill Helen, he was going to
kill her new boyfriend, Martin,
00:28:06
as well. The plan all along was he was
going to kill both of them. He was going to
punish both of them
00:28:12
for what they had done to him. Imagine being in bed. You've had a lovely night out.
00:28:18
You're celebrating new
year, your new life, your new love, your new hope. And suddenly, you wake
up to being stabbed
00:28:26
by a deranged, rageful man. NARRATOR: Helen's new partner
was the first to be attacked.
00:28:37
Martin Griffiths
was stabbed 37 times. Martin's jugular
vein had been slashed. He cut Martin's throat,
which led him to bleed out.
00:28:52
And obviously,
when that happens, people die very, very quickly. Hancock kills Martin first
because he would want his wife
00:29:02
to see the person
that she was in love with die in front of her. NARRATOR: Hancock then turned
his attention to his wife.
00:29:09
He made incisions, wounds,
which you can only describe, I think, as sexually motivated.
00:29:20
JEANETTE STEVENSON:
One paramedic said in his whole career-- and one must think about
the horrific things
00:29:25
that paramedics must see-- in his whole career, he
hadn't seen, you know, such a brutal scene of violence.
00:29:38
It was a frantic attack. It's been described by
some people as a bloodbath. Both Helen and Martin
have made efforts to escape,
00:29:51
to get out of the room. But neither of them made
it through the door alive. NARRATOR: By 426 AM, Rhys
Hancock's killing frenzy
00:30:00
was over. Rhys goes downstairs,
walks out the front door, sits down and calls
the police himself,
00:30:08
and tells them what he has done. And then he waits
for their arrival, while Helen is still
clinging on to life upstairs.
00:30:16
NARRATOR: Officers reached
the house minutes later. The first officer on the scene
described seeing Rhys Hancock
00:30:26
on his own phone, reporting
himself to the police, covered in blood. It was just horrific.
00:30:35
It was almost something
out of a horror film. The first thing that Rhys said
to the arresting officer was,
00:30:49
it's not like I
didn't do it, is it? I'm going to plead guilty. I just couldn't
allow her to live.
00:30:58
The police officer put
him straight onto the floor, applied the handcuffs. He was cooperative.
00:31:03
Martin is dead by the time
the police get on the scene. Helen dies shortly after.
00:31:10
JEANETTE STEVENSON: What the
victims must have gone through and what the police officers
and paramedics must have gone
00:31:16
through when they turned
up and saw that scene, it was just absolutely horrific.
00:31:23
NARRATOR: The next morning, the
quiet rural village of Duffield was in shock. [music playing]
00:31:56
As a local
journalist, I obviously pay a keen interest in news. But when it's literally,
you know, on your doorstep,
00:32:05
then you kind of become
more a local resident than the local reporter. And it becomes shocking.
00:32:12
It was very disturbing. I recall waking up
New Year's morning, going on to Facebook,
like we all do,
00:32:24
and seeing straight
away that something had happened in the village. ANDY DONE-JOHNSON: I remember on
the day it happened, you know,
00:32:34
taking a drive over, just
to look at the scene. And, you know, and there
was a big forensic tent
00:32:40
in the middle of the road. And there was
police tape, you know, all over New Zealand Lane.
00:32:46
And it was cornered off. NARRATOR: Stunned villagers
paid their own tributes to the popular PE teacher.
00:32:52
In the days that followed,
the road was opened again. And there were just bouquet
after bouquet of flowers
00:32:58
left outside the home. NARRATOR: Mourners turned
out in their hundreds. ANDY DONE-JOHNSON: When
the funeral was held,
00:33:10
the church in the village,
Saint Altman's, was packed to the brim. The wake took place
here at Makeney Hall.
00:33:21
And again, it was
packed to the rafters. She was very, very
well respected. NARRATOR: Rhys
Hancock's trial should
00:33:32
have been straightforward. The bizarre
circumstances of 2020 made sure that wasn't the case.
00:33:38
Within days of
the double murder, he appeared before magistrates. It was in courtroom
one at Derby Magistrates'
00:33:44
Court, which is a very big, a
very old, a very austere court. It's a very large courtroom.
00:33:54
Very, very tall ceilings,
you know, old, sort of dark. You know, very old dark wood,
something that I suppose
00:34:04
you might see on TV dramas. You know, I had 30 odd
journalists sat behind me. And literally, they were
hanging onto my every word.
00:34:12
You could hear a pin drop. And it was ordered
that there was going to be some reports
done on him, you know,
00:34:18
his mental capacity. NARRATOR: Even at
that early stage, some details of the crime
were revealed to the court.
00:34:26
And when I was saying what
happened, especially the fact that he called the
police himself to say,
00:34:33
I've just murdered my wife
and her partner in bed, I could hear the
journalist behind sort
00:34:39
of gasping in absolute shock. It was never in question
that he actually carried out the killing,
never in question at all.
00:34:48
Of course, he called the
police and he admitted it. There was some suggestion
that at that point,
00:34:54
the defense may go for a
diminished responsibility defense, which would negate it
down to a manslaughter charge,
00:35:03
potentially. And so, a provisional
date was set, I think, for psychiatric reports
to come back in.
00:35:10
The question was
his mental capacity. Was he able to inform-- form that intent to kill
or to cause serious harm?
00:35:21
Or was he capacitated
mentally in some way, which would mean that it would
be manslaughter and not murder?
00:35:30
NARRATOR: And then,
with psychiatric reports due to be prepared
ahead of the Crown Court
00:35:33
hearing, everything
ground to a halt because of the COVID-19 pandemic. When lockdown
restrictions were lifted,
00:35:41
experts were able to
give their verdict on Hancock's mental state. The reports that
were carried out on him
00:35:48
did not give him any basis
for it to be manslaughter, and that he knew exactly
what he was doing.
00:35:58
You know, he knew
that he was going to go and murder those people. He did it and he knew that
what he did was wrong.
00:36:07
NARRATOR: Hancock finally
entered his plea in July 2020. Not many people
plead guilty to murder.
00:36:13
I think Rhys Hancock is
perhaps the second one I've seen in the 20 years
that I've been doing this.
00:36:21
There's little point
pleading guilty because you've got a mandatory
life sentence anyway.
00:36:26
So most people take-- take a punt, I suppose, that
they may be able to argue their way out of it.
00:36:35
Rhys didn't do that. And as I say, it
was very, very rare. NARRATOR: The guilty plea
of Rhys Hancock removed
00:36:43
the need for a full trial. Because there was no trial,
because he pleaded guilty,
00:36:54
we were spared, I think,
a lot of the nitty gritty. NARRATOR: The
sentencing was held
00:37:02
online because of continuing
coronavirus restrictions. When somebody is in the
dark and somebody is facing
00:37:08
such serious charges, something
horrific like this, of course, everybody looks at the suspect,
you know, the defendant.
00:37:15
You know, does he
look like a murderer? Does he look like somebody
that could commit what
00:37:21
he's alleged to have committed? Rhys Hancock did
appear, you know, immaculately well groomed
on every appearance
00:37:29
that he made before the court. NARRATOR: Despite his
impeccable presentation, Rhys Hancock continued to
show no signs of remorse.
00:37:39
ANDY DONE-JOHNSON:
He was absolutely motionless throughout. You know, no
fidgeting, just staring
00:37:46
straight in front of him. He always said that
he was going to plead guilty, putting his hands
up for what he'd done.
00:37:54
And I guess he was
taking the consequences. And all I can recall
is looking over to him.
00:38:02
And he just absolutely had no
look on his face whatsoever. It was almost as though
nobody was there.
00:38:12
It was almost an act
of defiance, I suppose. You know, he showed no emotion. You know, he'd done it.
00:38:20
That was that. NARRATOR: Rhys Hancock's crimes
left the village of Duffield in a state of lasting shock.
00:38:28
It had a massive impact,
I think, on this community. JEANETTE STEVENSON:
Straight away, the people's
00:38:32
first thoughts must
have been, how on Earth can anybody defend
themselves with such
00:38:37
a brutal, voracious attack? And I think that element just
shook everybody to the core.
00:38:45
Things like that don't
happen in the field. You know, so people will
be talking about this
00:38:51
for years and years and years. This incident will always
be remembered by the people
00:38:58
that live in Duffield. I live in Duffield. It has left a lasting impression
on the people that live there.
00:39:10
NARRATOR: Rhys Hancock
was jailed for life with a minimum term
of 35 years, reduced
00:39:15
by four years in recognition
of his guilty plea. When she was passing sentence,
the judge told him basically
00:39:25
that he was on the cusp of a
whole life order, which means that he would never be let out.
00:39:33
JEANETTE STEVENSON: For somebody
that comes across to people as a calm school
teacher, professional,
00:39:42
trustworthy, to snap with no
notice the way that he did, can that person ever be deemed
to be safe to be released?
00:39:57
And then he was led away. NARRATOR: Rhys Hancock had
murdered his wife, Helen, the mother of his
three children,
00:40:07
because of her new relationship
with Martin Griffiths. He just couldn't handle that.
00:40:15
It was very much
sexual jealousy. The children in all of
this have lost both parents.
00:40:22
One can't imagine
how horrific that is to lose both the parents
in such drastic circumstances.
00:40:35
Not only has their mother
been taken away from them in such tragic
circumstances, but it's
00:40:40
their father who they
trusted and loved that took their mother away. How awful. [music playing]