The man who used a crossbow to kill his former girlfriend and members of her family at their London home in July 2024 will never be released from prison.
On March 11, Kyle Clifford was sentenced to serve a whole-life order, meaning he won’t ever be eligible for parole, for the murders of Louise Hunt, her sister Hannah and their mother, Carol.
“The evidence I have heard shows you to be a jealous man soaked in self-pity – a man who holds women in utter contempt,” said the judge, Mr Justice Joel Bennathan.
Clifford, 26, carried out the heinous attack after Louise, 25, ended their 18-month relationship. The court heard how, in a premeditated plan that the prosecution called a “violent, sexual act
of spite”, the former soldier gained access to her family home in Bushey on July 9 by lying to her mother.
After Carol, 61, let him in, Clifford stabbed her eight times and then “lay in wait” for an hour for Louise to come inside from where she was working in the back garden.
Prosecutor Alison Morgan told the court Carol’s injuries were “significant and showed she struggled in that period to get away from the defendant”.
Clifford restrained and raped Louise, then shot her in the back with a crossbow when he heard her sister Hannah enter the property. Hannah, 28, managed to send a text message to her partner saying, “He’s tying us up,” in the minutes before she was also fatally shot with the crossbow.
The message quickly sparked a manhunt for Clifford, who was found 20 hours later injured in a cemetery in north London. He has been left paralysed from the waist down after shooting himself with the crossbow.
Clifford pleaded guilty to the three murders in January, however, the family’s loved ones were still forced to sit through an excruciating trial after he fought against the accusation he raped Louise. He was found guilty of that charge by a jury.
“The screams of hell, Kyle. I can hear them faintly now,” John Hunt, Carol’s husband and Louise and Hannah’s father, said while delivering his victim impact statement to the court on sentencing day.
“They’re going to roll the red carpet out for you. The person you could have been will meet the person you are, and you will realise your miserable fate will last for eternity.”
Showing one final act of cowardice, Clifford opted out of attending the hearing, refusing to leave his cell so he didn’t have to face the grieving husband and father, who is a well-known sports commentator for the BBC.
The senior investigating officer in the case, Detective Chief Inspector Nick Gardner, praised the bravery of the victims.
“Three innocent women from the same family lost their lives simply because Clifford could not accept rejection or Louise’s right to leave their relationship,” Gardner said outside Cambridge Crown Court. “There was nothing that Louise, Carol or Hannah could have done to predict the violence that ensued or to prevent it from happening.
“They resisted Clifford’s attack with bravery and Hannah herself raised the alarm despite having suffered an injury that would later take her life.”
The evening before the vicious attacks, Clifford had searched online for Andrew Tate’s podcast. The controversial British-American influencer and self-professed “misogynist”, who is well known for promoting an antagonistic brand of masculinity, is facing criminal accusations in Romania of rape and human trafficking.
“Andrew Tate can properly be described as a poster boy for misogyny, a poster boy for those who see women as possessions to be controlled,” prosecutor Morgan said.
“It is no coincidence that it was Andrew Tate the defendant turned to the night before he would go on to commit these acts of violence against women.”
If you or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, help is always available. Call 1800 RESPECT or visit their website.
