Triple crossbow and knife killer Kyle Clifford has been handed a whole-life order, as a judge described him as a “jealous man soaked in self pity, who holds women in utter contempt”.
Clifford, 26, refused to face the family of his victims – his ex-partner Louise Hunt, 25, her sister Hannah Hunt, 28, and their mother Carol Hunt, 61 – as Mr Justice Bennathan told the court from the outset his plan to jail the defendant for the rest of his life.
At Cambridge Crown Court on Tuesday, the judge said of Clifford: “The evidence I have heard shows you to be a jealous man soaked in self-pity, a man who holds women in utter contempt.
“This is no occasion to subject family and friends of your victims to any delay or suspense.
“I therefore make clear at once that for each of these three murders, the sentence will be one of life imprisonment with a whole-life order.
“That means a sentence from which you will never be released.”
Mr Justice Bennathan described the attacks as “brutal and cowardly”.
He added that Clifford wrote letters to his own family that were “dripping with self-pity”.
Speaking about the victim impact statements made by Carol Hunt’s husband, BBC racing commentator John Hunt, and their surviving daughter Amy Hunt, he added: “They showed a gentle heroism of which you, Kyle Clifford, can only dream.”
Mr Hunt and Amy Hunt both delivered tearful victim impact statements in Clifford’s absence before the sentence was passed.
Mr Hunt addressed Clifford at Cambridge Crown Court, saying he could faintly hear the “screams of hell” which said “they’re going to roll the red carpet out for you”.
Amy also directed her words at the killer, telling the court: “Kyle, plainly the Hunt family are human and you are not.”
