‘Everything was a weapon – but we thought Dad’s behaviour was normal’
Luke Hart, 33, lives in Ashford, Surrey, with his two dogs and his brother Ryan. Following the shocking murders of his mother Claire and sister Charlotte – who were 50 and 19 respectively
– in 2016, he has worked extensively with domestic abuse charities worldwide. In collaboration with the charity Level Up, Luke and Ryan have been campaigning to introduce a set of media guidelines for reporting on domestic violence and homicide, which includes placing responsibility solely on the killer.
Luke says, “When I was growing up, I would see stories in the papers about domestic abuse, but they didn’t resonate with me. My family were victims of domestic abuse, but it was in the form of coercive control, rather than regular beatings.
“Growing up, our dad had total authority over the finances. He framed it as a moral thing. He said he was taking Mum’s salary from her job at the local Morissons so we ‘didn’t have to worry about it’. My brother Ryan and I believed all our problems were financially-related, but actually our father was using money as a way of controlling us.
“While he’d spend £300 on an exercise bike for himself, he’d guilt trip our mum for weeks over spending £3 on a cup of coffee. He began restricting her access to her phone and social media – always acting as though he was in the right.
“Everything had to revolve around him. When Mum told us she’d been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, he complained that none of us understood how hard it was for him. If he was sad, we had to be sad. If he was happy, we had to be too.
“Though he didn’t beat us up, everything became a weapon. I suffer from severe nut allergies and I found out my dad once purposefully fed me a peanut as a baby. He was using it to force my mum into moving to
the remote countryside with him. His tactic was one of plausible deniability – when we had dogs he’d threaten to ‘forget’ and feed them chocolate and raisins which are poisonous for dogs – if we did anything to upset him.
ESCAPE
“As soon as my sister Charlotte went to university, Dad decided he wanted to move out to the countryside with Mum again. We could all tell he was looking to isolate her even more.
“My brother and I had jobs by then, and we secretly rented a house in Spalding for my mum and sister. Dad knew something was up, and it was almost a race between us – could we get a rented house before he took her away?
“We moved Mum out in the middle of the day when Dad was at work. She left him a letter and a sandwich on the kitchen counter. We felt free for the first time in our lives.
“When Dad realised we’d gone, he became overly friendly. He told us he wanted us to meet up with him for a walk so he could apologise. We now know if we'd agreed, he was planning to kill all four of us with a machete.
“Instead, he was only able to reach Mum and Charlotte.
Four days after Mum moved out, my brother Ryan and I saw a notification pop up on our phones. There had been a shooting in Spalding, where they lived.
“We tried ringing Mum and Charlotte, but neither of them picked up. It wasn’t long till we heard the news. Our father had shot Charlotte before shooting our mum three times. Then he turned the gun on himself.
SHOCK
“Both Ryan and I were in a state of total shock. We’d both believed that domestic homicides occur after a slow escalation of violence. Now we know that, statistically, this simply isn’t’ true.
“Police found our father’s murder note. Characteristically, he tried to justify his actions morally. He said we were evil, and murdering us was the righteous thing to do. His reasons are agonisingly trivial – he mentioned the ketchup we’d taken from the cupboard. He loved ketchup, how could we have done that to him?
“The press coverage was shockingly sympathetic to our father, even linking to mens’ suicide helplines rather than domestic abuse charities. Ryan and I don’t want him named or pictured anywhere – the focus should be on my mum and sister.”
“We grew up thinking our dad’s behaviour was normal. It’s vital that information is available to those who need it. A woman is always in most danger of homicide after leaving an abusive relationship. Had anyone warned us of this, Mum and Charlotte might still be alive today.”
● For more information, visit Cocoawareness.co.uk
❛ HE WAS PLANNING TO
KILL ALL FOUR OF US ❜