His neighbours said he was like any
other loving dad. They'd often seen him and his wife take their two
children to the park, and they'd pop out to local restaurants for dinner
together.
So why on earth
did Julian Stevenson apparently brutally kill his own children? How
could a father turn on his own flesh and blood and attack them so
viciously?
The 48-year-old
Briton has reportedly admitted cutting the throats of his two children —
Matthew, ten, and Carla, five — after he was allowed to see them alone
for the first time since his bitter divorce from their French mother.
After killing the children, Stevenson escaped his blood-splattered flat in Lyon, France, on a pair of rollerskates.
While
I was as horrified as anyone else at the brutality of this killing, I
have to admit that I wasn't in the least bit shocked.
As
a criminologist specialising in murder, I have just completed research
into the phenomenon of parents killing their children.
And my discoveries left me
wondering not how it could happen — but just how soon it would be before
another case of parental murder would hit the headlines.
Perhaps
the most terrifying thing I have learned from my research is that the
incidence of parents murdering their children is becomingly increasingly
common. There have been 71 cases since 1980 - and the numbers are
speeding up alarmingly.
In
the Eighties, fewer than one child a year was murdered by a parent. Over
the past decade, numbers have risen to two or three a year - a rate
that is increasing steadily.
Though mothers are also capable of
murdering their children, the vast majority of murders - 59 of the 71 -
are committed by men. I call them Family Annihilators because they
cold-bloodedly plot their family's destruction.
And
the reason why these apparently normal, loving men turn into ruthless
killers? Family breakdown, which, of course, is also on the increase.
A HUSBAND JEALOUS OF HIS WIFE'S TUTOR
Ceri
Fuller murdered his children Sam, 12, Becca, eight, and Charlie, seven,
by stabbing them to death before throwing himself off a cliff in July
2012
Shortly before he
took his children's lives his wife Ruth, 34, had told him she had
feelings for a university lecturer and was leaving the marriage.
At
the inquest into the deaths, she recalled how her husband stood in
front of her on the last night they spent together, crying, holding his
wedding ring and asking if he should take it with him.
I examined all of the cases of murders
by parents of their children since 1980, looking at everything from the
fathers' jobs to the day of the week they committed the murder — and
uncovered some quite extraordinary patterns.
In seven out of ten cases, the children have been at the centre of a bitter family break-up.
Of course, I wouldn't for a minute suggest that divorce inevitably leads to murder.
Far from it.
However,
what's extremely worrying is that there is a small minority of men who
find it impossible to cope when their families break up.
These men come from all walks of life. They include doctors, businessmen, electricians, lorry drivers and security guards.
But they all seem to have one thing in common. They feel that their masculinity is being threatened.
In getting divorced, they believe they are losing the one thing that makes them feel like successful men: their families.
In murdering their children, they are,
in some twisted way, wresting back control not just of their children,
but often of their wives, too.
Killing their children is the most shocking and dramatic way they can think of to shout to the world: 'Look how powerful I am.'
Amy Philcox, seven, and her brother Owen, three, who were found dead with their father Brian Philcox
In murder, many are also seeking the
ultimate revenge. They know that in killing their children they are
killing the things that are most precious to their former wives.
Horrifically, many of these men leave
notes at the scene, blaming their ex-wife for the tragedy. Some even add
the extra twist of writing: 'I hope you will be happy now.'
In so many ways, then, the case of Julian Stevenson is very typical if he is eventually found guilty of the killings.
A FATHER WHO KILLED TO GET REVENGE
In November 2005 hospital radiographer Gavin Hall (right) killed his daughter, Amelia, then tried to kill himself.
The
33-year-old fed his daughter anti-depressants two days before her
fourth brithday and then smothered her with a rag soaked with
chloroform.
He tried to kill himself, but was unsuccessful.
The court in his murder trial heard he had discovered his wife was having an affair with a man she met on the internet.
The prosecutor said: 'His anger and bitterness, his desire to punish Joanne are obvious.'
In a text message to Amelia's mother he said: 'Now you have the rest of your life to deal with the consequences.'
He
was in the throes of a bitter custody battle with his French ex-wife,
Stephanie. He had been banned from seeing his children alone after
attacking her in 2010, so last weekend was his first unsupervised access
visit with his children in three years.
There are two patterns that Family Annihilators follow — both equally dangerous for children.
The
first scenario is that the parents are living together, but the family
is fracturing, often because the husband or wife is having an affair.
The father can't bear the thought of losing his children and is often
raging at his wife, so he exacts the ultimate punishment.
In the second scenario — as in the
Stevensons' case — the marriage is already over, the family has broken
up and the children are living with the mother.
Far from satisfied with the outcome and filled with impotent rage, the father wants revenge.
I
don't know about Stevenson's wife, but often the trigger is that the
spouse is with a new partner or is pregnant. He may have been dreaming
of a reconciliation: now he has to face the reality of losing his wife
for ever.
In half of all cases of Family Annihilator, the murderer kills his former wife, too.
One
of the most chilling examples is that of 53-year-old Brian Philcox, a
security guard from Runcorn, Cheshire, who was in the middle of a bitter
marriage breakdown. In June 2008, on Father's Day, he collected his
children — Amy, seven, and Owen, three — and drove them to a remote
beauty spot in Snowdonia, North Wales.
The funeral of Amy and Owen Philcox at All Saints Church in Daresbury in June 2008
After
sedating them with drugs and makeshift chloroform masks, he joined them
on the back seat of his Land Rover and waited for exhaust fumes to kill
them all.
Meanwhile, he'd
left a booby-trap bomb in his home, designed to explode when his ex-wife
opened a note he had left addressed to 'The Bitch'. Luckily, it failed
to explode.
A LOVING FATHER WHO LOST CONTROL BECAUSE OF DEBT
The brother of Christopher Foster
(right) spoke about how he often feared the millionaire would kill
himself - but says he never imagined he could murder his wife and
daughter.
'He was bad-tempered, yes. I never thought he'd go this far. Perhaps kill himself but not his family,' said Andrew Foster today.
But
he also told how he feared having a shotgun thrust at him by his older
brother, who had once fired a gun in his back garden even as children
played outside next door.
The gun maniac's violent tendencies
reached their horrific climax at August Bank Holiday in 2008 when he
methodically shot dead his 15-year-old daughter Kirstie and his wife
Jill along with the family's dogs and horses.
The
50-year-old - whose fortune had turned into a £4million debt due to
unwise or shady business deals - then set the family's Shropshire
mansion ablaze, having first pumped oil into the cellar and blocked the
gateway to hamper firefighters.
For
most parents, the thought of sitting down and plotting how we are going
to take our children's lives isn't just abhorrent, it's simply
unimaginable.
But that is exactly what these fathers do. They spend weeks — sometimes months — planning every gruesome detail.
And
perhaps most frightening of all, they are able to do it all while
keeping up a facade of normality. While they are plotting, no one
guesses what's on their mind.
The
terrifying truth is that these men are silent killers. In most cases,
no one has seen the clues — not their wives, not their friends and not
their families. Friends and neighbours often say they appear to be
loving and devoted fathers.
Not
surprisingly, perhaps, most murders occur between Friday and Sunday
nights. I'm sure this is because weekends are commonly when estranged
fathers get to see their children alone — giving them the opportunity to
kill.
The way that
Stevenson is alleged to have murdered his children — by slitting their
throats — is horrifying in its violent brutality.
Incredibly,
though, it's not rare. In fact, one of the most shocking things my
research has uncovered is that one-third of men stab their children to
death.
Stabbing usually occurs where the murderer is full of violent rage and anger and wants to damage his victim's appearance.
It's
a violent way to kill, and a horrible way to die. But these men seem to
want to inflict maximum damage on their children as a way of proving
just how powerful they are — and as a means to inflict the maximum pain
on their wives.
It appears
that Stevenson was a violent alcoholic, with a record of attacking his
wife. In this, he is uncommon. Fewer than 10 per cent of Family
Annihilators have a record of domestic violence.
Even more frightening, perhaps, most have no record of mental illness. They have simply slipped beneath the radar.
But
the most disturbing aspect of my research is that, as far as I can see,
these parent-on-child killings are going to continue happening with
increasing regularity. Marriages are going to continue breaking up.
Fathers are going to continue feeling aggrieved and powerless.
And
there is no way of predicting which men are going to carry on being
loving fathers — and which are going to act on these feelings and turn
into Family Annihilators.
* Dr Elizabeth Yardley is deputy director of the Centre for Applied Criminology at Birmingham City University.
dailymail.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment