Duffield deaths: Man jailed for murdering wife and new partner

A man has been jailed for life for murdering his wife and her new partner on New Year’s Day.

Derby Crown Court heard Helen Hancock, 39, and Martin Griffiths, 48, suffered 103 injuries when they were stabbed at her home in Duffield, Derbyshire.

A paramedic said it was the “most violent incident he had ever seen”, the court was told.

Rhys Hancock, 40, of Etwall, admitted both murders in July and was jailed for a minimum of 31 years.

Judge Nirmal Shant described it as a “brutal attack” which had “deprived two families of the people they loved”.

The court heard how Hancock was found outside the property covered in blood and told a police officer: “I’m hardly going to deny it – look at me.”

The prosecution described how, after coming back from the pub, Hancock had told his mother he “felt like he wanted to kill” the pair.

He took her emergency buzzer and landline phones so she could not call the police and then drove to Ms Hancock’s house.

He had taken two knives from his mother’s kitchen.

Once there he entered through the backdoor and attacked the pair in the bedroom.

He stabbed mother-of-three Ms Hancock 66 times and father-of-two Mr Griffiths 37 times.

The court heard how one paramedic described the scene as a “blood bath”.

Prosecutor Michael Auty QC said: “There is no escaping these murders were premeditated, they were savage, the attack was merciless, there were elements of sadism and the intention was always… and only to kill.

“Perhaps, above all else, they were committed in the coldest of blood.”

But Judge Shant concluded she “could not be sure” this was “sadistic or sexual” and would not be handing out a whole life term, although she accepted it was a “borderline” case.

She added: “No sentence I impose will seem adequate to [the victims’ families] and nothing I do can fill the undoubted void that the deaths of Helen Hancock and Martin Griffiths have left.”