Jailed, headmaster who killed wife and her new lover in stabbing frenzy
A HEAD teacher who crept into his former marital home in the middle of the night to stab his estranged wife and her new boyfriend to death was jailed for 31 years yesterday.
Jealous Rhys Hancock knifed the 39-year-old PE teacher – the mother of his three young children – 66 times and her partner Martin Griffiths 37 times in a ‘sadistic and brutal’ attack.
He then called police to confess to the murder after the ‘indignity’ of finding out about her lover. The ‘ bloodbath’ was described by one seasoned police officer as the worst he had seen.
Mrs Hancock’s family told of their anguish over the future of her children, aged nine, four and three.
Her father Trevor Almey, in his 70s, who now cares for them with his wife, also in her 70s, said in a statement: ‘Helen will not be able to see them on
‘I have stabbed her and slit their throats’
their first day of secondary school, their leavers’ prom, or support them through university. All this has been taken away from her.
‘We try our best but how can life ever be normal again? This will only become harder as the children get older and become teenagers.’
Mrs Hancock’s sister Jane Morley said: ‘I feel for the children, they now have no mum to cuddle them when they are upset, or comfort them when they fall over. I don’t know how they will cope in the future.’
Hancock, 40, who was on police bail at the time of the attack after earlier injuring his wife in a row, was ordered to serve a minimum of 31 years of a life term after pleading guilty to the double murder in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
Derby Crown Court heard Hancock had been head teacher at Stanton Vale Special School in Long Eaton, Derbyshire, but had lost his job and separated from his wife after a string of arguments.
She had also sought a non-molestation order after she was injured when he threw a mug during a row. Hancock was released on bail and moved in with his mother Denise.
The court heard Mrs Hancock was ‘a lot happier’ after he moved out and had started seeing Mr Griffiths, 48, a company director of a marketing firm who had two children. She tried to keep the relationship a secret by not putting photographs on social media.
But Hancock – who sobbed through the hearing – found out when their oldest son told him a man had stayed over at the £400,000 family home in Duffield.
He sent a text to one of Mrs Hancock’s friends reading: ‘Any idea why a man called Martin Griffiths tucked my children into bed on
Christmas night and was there in the morning cooking bacon?’
The court heard that on New Year’s Eve, Mr Hancock went to a pub close to his mother’s house, then returned at around 1am to say: ‘I feel like I want to kill them.’
The court heard she tried to reason with him, but he removed both her landline phones and ripped out internet cables to stop her calling police. His mother tried to pull her medical emergency cord but he grabbed it before he left.
Denise Hancock finally managed to call 999 hours later – but her son had already done so, telling the operator: ‘I have just murdered my wife in her bed, I have just stabbed her and slit their throats.’
When a police officer arrived at 4.28am, Hancock was outside covered in blood. He said: ‘I am hardly going to deny it, look at me.’
Clive Stockwell, in mitigation, tried to argue it was not premeditated. ‘Something ignited within him. It was thoughts of self-pity and rage,’ he said. But Judge Nirmal Shant told Hancock: ‘ It is clear you had an intent to kill. They were in bed defenceless.’