A MAN stabbed a friend and his wife to death while babysitting their son who was asleep in the next room.
Stanley Elliott, 53, knifed Geoffrey, 61, and Michelle Hibbert, 29, because the couple “planned to throw him under the bus” for a £28,000 bingo hall burglary that both men were charged with.
Geoffrey and Michelle Hibbert were killed as their young son slept in the next room[/caption]
Stanley Elliott was convicted for their murder[/caption]
Geoffrey was stabbed 58 times in the neck and torso while Michelle was knifed seven times.
Michelle then called emergency services and told them they had both been stabbed in their house.
Andrew Eddy of the CPS today called it a violent and ferocious attack.
He added: “The terror and panic that Michelle must have suffered, knowing that her husband had been stabbed, that she herself had been attacked, and that her child was still in their home, is unthinkable.
“She must have been extremely brave and strong-willed to have had the determination to call 999.”
Elliott was found guilty of both murders at Winchester crown court today. He did not react as the verdicts were read out.
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The court heard Elliott turned on the couple after a row when they returned from their night out.
Their young boy, who Elliott was babysitting, was sleeping in the next room at their semi-detached bungalow in Basingstoke, Hants.
During her 999 call, Michelle explained that she had been stabbed in her stomach and her husband had been stabbed “all over”.
Mrs Hibbert is then asked if she is bleeding, but after answering ‘yes’ she becomes suddenly panicked and screams.
She says, “No, no, no, no”, before pleading with someone: “I have got to look after [my son], please.”
But her cries cease – though the call continues – and Mrs Hibbert is not heard again.
Mr Hibbert was found slumped by a radiator, before wife Michelle was found laid on her back on a bed, with an officer saying, ‘There’s another one here’.
A child is later heard crying as officers find him in his bedroom.
Prosecuting, Sarah Jones QC told jurors: “Someone they had trusted to look after their child had turned on them and inexplicably and savagely murdered them in their own home with their son sleeping there in a nearby room.”
He fled the property on his motorcycle before the arrival of the police but was arrested at his home.
In the statement found torn up in a bin at the property, Mr Hibbert claimed he had loaned Elliott a mobile phone found at the scene of a bingo hall burglary in January last year.
More than £28,000 was stolen during the raid on Buzz Bingo in Basingstoke, Hants, and Mr Hibbert was charged after his phone was found.
Dad-of-two Elliott was also charged with the burglary and the pair were due to stand trial at the end of last year.
Mr Hibbert was a campaigner for Fathers for Justice – a father’s rights organisation which is known for its stunts where protestors dress as comic superheroes and climb buildings, bridges and monuments.
Elliott will be sentenced on March 31.
Geoffrey and Michelle had been on a night out[/caption]
Michelle phoned 999 after she had been stabbed[/caption]
The couple were killed in their semi-detached home[/caption]
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