A man has been found guilty of murdering his wife eight years after being cleared of the crime – after their child gave new evidence.
Robert Rhodes stabbed his wife Dawn in the neck but was acquitted of murder in 2017 after claiming she had tried to attack him.
The retrial came after new evidence from Rhodes’ child – disclosed during therapy – revealed how he coerced them into helping with a plan to kill her and injure himself to make it look like self-defense.
Previously, a person could not be retried for the same offense after being cleared, but the double jeopardy law in England Wales changed in 2005 to allow a second trial for the most serious of offenses, including murder.
Rhodes, 52, who denied ever planning to kill his wife, was also found guilty of child cruelty, perverting the course of justice, and two counts of perjury and will be sentenced in the new year.
He was found guilty after 22 hours of deliberations in what Judge Mrs Justice Naomi Ellenbogen called a “difficult and upsetting case.”
