‘Bankrupt’ dad strangled daughter
A WEALTHY antiques dealer said he strangled his seven-year-old daughter with a dressing gown cord to save her the pain of seeing him go bankrupt, a court heard yesterday.
Robert Peters told little Sophia Peters he was “sorry” before throttling her for 20 minutes, jurors were told.
He then rang 999 and told the operator: “There’s been a murder,” the Old Bailey heard.
Two officers who raced to the businessman’s £1million home in Raynes Park, south-west London, found him standing calmly in the doorway where he allegedly told them: “She’s upstairs. I’ve strangled her.”
They found the little girl motionless lying in a foetal position on her bed.
A knotted black fleece dressing gown cord was wound around her neck and mouth. The officers tried to revive Sophia before she was rushed to hospital, the court heard.
She was kept on life support but later died.
After his arrest, Peters allegedly said: “I’ve had a breakdown.”
Mukul Chawla, prosecuting, said: “No-one hearing about this case can fail to be deeply affected by it.”
Peters, 56, denies murder but admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The court heard
details from Peters’ interview with detectives. He told police how when he walked into his daughter’s room last November she asked: “What are you doing?”
Mr Chawla said: “He told her he was sorry. He said that he manually strangled her for about 20 minutes before he felt that she had died.
“During this time, he said that she had struggled a little bit. He said that he had been planning to kill his daughter for weeks because he had been depressed and could not go on with life.”
It was his last chance to kill her because she would soon be returning to boarding school, Peters allegedly told police.
Peters told officers he feared bankruptcy was only a couple of months away and that he would “lose everything, including their home”.
He told a mental health nurse he planned to kill his wife Krittiya and Sophia to save them the pain of seeing him go bankrupt. But, the court heard, Peters was not in debt, his mortgages were up to date and he had money in the bank.
His oriental art business, which he ran with twin brother Richard in London’s Kensington, had assets of £1.3million.
Three-times married Peters was keeping up £3,333-a-month mortgage payments on the family home. He also paid £4,000-a-month maintenance to his second wife as well as paying her mortgage with a £25,000-a-year lump sum on top.
Peters went on to claim he was driven to kill by “voices in his head”, the jury was told. But mention of the “voices” was not until he had spent five or six days in custody, said Mr Chawla.
He had met Krittiya – known as Ya – 10 years earlier in Hong Kong but had cheated on her for the last two years.
For six months he lived away from the family but returned once the affair ended. The trial continues.