Black Widow
03-05-2008, 01:57 PM
A father has been found guilty of murdering his four-year-old son and stabbing his teenage daughter to get back at his cheating wife.
Christopher Hawkins, 47, is believed to have killed Ryan and seriously injured 14-year-old Donna in a frenzied knife attack.
He then calmly walked into his local pub covered in blood and ordered a pint.
Hawkins, from Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, showed no emotion as the jury at Leeds Crown Court returned guilty verdicts.
The trial head how the sheet metal worker attacked his kids after his wife of 17 years, Valerie Gee, left him for a taxi driver.
Daughter Donna said her father apologised before stabbing her 13 times at his home in September last year.
"He turned around and said 'I'm sorry' and he just looked proper weird, angry, and I saw the knife and then he just went for me," she said.
"He was stabbing me and I was telling him to stop and he just did it again and again. I was on the floor." He then turned his attention to Ryan.
In her police interview, Donna said: "He said 'I'm going to kill Ryan now'."
Simon Myerson QC, prosecuting, said: "The defendant did this because he was angry at Valerie Hawkins for leaving him and taking the children away.
"He simply lost his temper. . . he only thought about getting back at her."
Hawkins denied the charges of murder and attempted murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility, claiming that he was suffering from an "abnormality of mind".
Giving evidence during the trial, he said: "It wasn't me that day. It was like some evil inside me. I knew nothing of what I was doing."
Hawkins will be sentenced later.
Sky News
Christopher Hawkins, 47, is believed to have killed Ryan and seriously injured 14-year-old Donna in a frenzied knife attack.
He then calmly walked into his local pub covered in blood and ordered a pint.
Hawkins, from Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, showed no emotion as the jury at Leeds Crown Court returned guilty verdicts.
The trial head how the sheet metal worker attacked his kids after his wife of 17 years, Valerie Gee, left him for a taxi driver.
Daughter Donna said her father apologised before stabbing her 13 times at his home in September last year.
"He turned around and said 'I'm sorry' and he just looked proper weird, angry, and I saw the knife and then he just went for me," she said.
"He was stabbing me and I was telling him to stop and he just did it again and again. I was on the floor." He then turned his attention to Ryan.
In her police interview, Donna said: "He said 'I'm going to kill Ryan now'."
Simon Myerson QC, prosecuting, said: "The defendant did this because he was angry at Valerie Hawkins for leaving him and taking the children away.
"He simply lost his temper. . . he only thought about getting back at her."
Hawkins denied the charges of murder and attempted murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility, claiming that he was suffering from an "abnormality of mind".
Giving evidence during the trial, he said: "It wasn't me that day. It was like some evil inside me. I knew nothing of what I was doing."
Hawkins will be sentenced later.
Sky News