Cancer victim, 70, admits killing wife and daughter

Peter Redfern strangled his wife Jean and covered her head in a plastic bag before hours later attacking their daughter Sarah with a hammer when she came home from work.

Sheffield Crown Court heard the retired gas fitter phoned 999 after the second killing and told the police operator: “My name is Redfern, I have just killed my wife and daughter.”

Redfern, of Wath-upon-Dearne, had two months earlier been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an incurable form of bone marrow, and had signed up for two drug trials to treat the disease.

He had come off the drugs twice because “significant adverse” side-effects of the combination of different medications, which included Dexamethasone, a type of steroid.

Mark George QC, mitigating, told the court the actions of the defendant had “come as the most appalling, devastating blow to everyone involved in the case”.

He added: “He has never really been able to explain why he killed Jean. He has always maintained that the only thing he could think of was that it must in some way be linked to the treatment he had for the cancer.

“He had absolutely no motivation to harm Jean in any way. He acted without any pre-meditation or thought and it was entirely on the spur of the moment.”

He added that Redfern had led an “utterly blameless life” up to that point and that “when something as devastating as this happens it is hard to get away from the fact that in some way, probably not entirely understood or easily articulated, there was something in the treatment that precipitated this catastrophic chain of events”.

He added: “A few hours later, after killing his wife, he became aware of the fact that his daughter, and Jean’s good friend, Sarah, would be coming home and would inevitably find that not only her mother was dead but why she was dead and who was responsible.

“He felt he couldn’t allow that situation to happen and that it would be too much for her to bear. It seemed he took a decision before she returned to kill her.”

Emergency services arrived at the home in Sandygate at 7pm on July 22 to find Jean lying dead in her bedroom and Sarah dead in the kitchen.,

Redfern had been due to face trial for murdering Jean, 67, and Sarah, 33, but today changed his plea and admitted the murder of his daughter and the manslaughter of his wife. He denied a charge of murder in relation to Jean.

Graham Reeds QC, prosecuting, told the court the Crown accepted the manslaughter plea on the basis of diminished responsibility. Redfern will be sentenced tomorrow morning.

Speaking after the hearing Detective Chief Inspector Chris Singleton of South Yorkshire Police said: “Peter Redfern murdered his wife and daughter in an attack that was shocking and impossible to understand. Only he knows why he committed such a violent act.

“We will continue to support the family and are relieved on their behalf that they will not have to suffer the trauma of a trial.

“Jean and Sarah were a mother and daughter who were as close as a mother and daughter could be. Our thoughts are with Jean and Sarah’s family as they begin this next step of the grieving process.”

In a statement released through the police shortly after the death, a member of the Redferm family described Jean as “a much-loved sister and aunt” and Sarah as a “wonderful, kind and loving niece and cousin”

Neighbours in quiet, tree-lined Sandygate said Jean and her daughter were “inseperable” and described the family as a “unit.” Sarah Redfern worked at the Bon Marche clothing store in nearby Rotherham.

The court heard Redfern began taking medication for his “serious, life-threatening condition” in June last year. He took a combination of drugs, both of which included Dexamethasone, in two trials before the death of his wife and daughter.

He stopped the first trial on July 4 because of “unpleasant side-effects” caused by the treatment before starting again on July 11 with a different combination. He stopped again on July 16 because of “recurring side-effects”.

Expert reports referred to in court revealed that a “small number of cases” of Dexamethasone treatment had led to “adverse psychiatric events”.

The court was told that between two and five per cent of patients suffered such episodes, but that only one per cent experienced “serious adverse psychiatric events”.

Graham Reeds, prosecuting, said a consultant pyschiatrist who analysed the case concluded that Redfern was suffering depression at the time of the killings. He said the Crown accepted he would still have been suffering the symptoms of depression when he later killed Sarah.