Ex-soldier ‘stabbed neighbours to death in row over parking’
He used ceremonial dagger given to him by Army
A FORMER soldier murdered his neighbours while their children slept following a long-running dispute over parking, a court heard yesterday.
Collin Reeves climbed over a garden fence before entering Stephen and Jennifer Chapple’s home and stabbing them with a ceremonial dagger given to him when he left the Army.
Following his arrest he told police: ‘I was just doing my job. It was an operation.’
Adam Feest QC, prosecuting, said the 35-year-old had been involved in a dispute with the Chapples over designated parking on their new-build housing development.
The jury was shown security camera footage of Reeves going into their home by the back door. A few seconds later Mrs Chapple can be heard screaming while Reeves shouts ‘die you f****** die’.
The couple were stabbed multiple times in a frenzied, minutelong attack in the living room.
Mrs Chapple, 33, suffered six stab wounds to her chest and shoulder, causing fatal injuries.
The attack was so quick she did not even have time to get up from the sofa to defend herself.
Mr Chapple, 36, was found close to the rear door with six stab wounds and three minor injuries. neither he nor his wife had any defensive injuries.
The jury was told that Reeves, who served as a Commando engineer, had admitted killing the couple and entered a plea of guilty to manslaughter.
He claims he was suffering an ‘abnormality of mental functioning’ and jurors were told it would be their job to decide whether this was true.
Mr Feest insisted Reeves was ‘not suffering from diminished responsibility and the killing of the neighbours in their own home was murder’.
After the attack, he climbed back over the fence of the property in norton Fitzwarren, near
Taunton in Somerset, and telephoned police to tell them he had stabbed his neighbours. Bristol Crown Court was told that days before the killings Reeves launched a ‘particularly unpleasant verbal assault’ on Mrs Chapple that was captured on a doorbell camera.
His wife Kayley had told him she wanted a trial separation on the evening of the attack. She told police that in response he went up and down the stairs twice before going outside.
‘It was at this point she heard screaming,’ Mr Feest said.
‘Whether it was this parking dispute, tensions within the
‘I ruined their lives and mine’
defendant’s marriage, or a combination of these things which led the defendant to kill his neighbours is unclear.
‘When he was questioned by the police in interview about his actions, the defendant chose to exercise his right to silence.’
The jury was told it would hear evidence from two psychiatrists about Reeves’ mental state.
The court was told that when he arrived at the police station after his arrest he was asked how he was feeling and said he was confused and did not understand why he was there.
The court heard he then told officers: ‘I was just doing my job – it was an operation.’ He later added: ‘I shouldn’t have done it. I’ve ruined their lives and mine.’
A healthcare professional described him as being alert and willing to engage. Mr Feest added: ‘There was no evidence of acute mental illness.’
The victims’ two children were just five and six at the time of the killings last november.
Detailing the parking dispute, Mr Feest said: ‘Although there were designated spaces, these were not always outside the house. Parking seems to be the cause of tension during 2020 when Mrs Chapple learned to drive so they had a second car. With two cars on a single space this caused problems.’
He said that although the two cars did not block access to the Reeves’ parking spot, it ‘did perhaps to a degree limit the access to it’ and required them to manoeuvre around.
Reeves pleads not guilty to two counts of murder. The trial, which is expected to last for eight days, continues.