Police inspector killed wife and daughter, six, after sacking for misconduct

Toby Day, 37, punched wife Samantha, 38, in the face before strangling her and stabbing her in the chest and stomach at their home in Melton Mowbray last December.

He then strangled and stabbed their six-year-old daughter Genevieve before turning the knife on himself at the semi-detached house, the inquest in Loughborough heard today.

Recording a verdict of unlawful killing for Samantha and Genevieve and one of dying at his own hands for Mr Day, the coroner for Rutland and North Leicestershire Trevor Kirkman said: “No one here or in the wider community could fail to have been touched by these tragic incidents.”

Armed police forced their way into the house and found the bodies of Samantha and Genevieve on a double bed in a back bedroom in the property in Robin Crescent, the inquest heard.

The former inspector was found on the floor next to them, with a kitchen knife in his hand.

The couple’s surviving children Kimberley, 16, and Adam, 14, who were at the hearing yesterday, were also injured in the attack. Adam was found with a stab wound to the chest in the living room downstairs while Kimberley, who had also been stabbed in the neck, managed to escape and ran to nearby Swallowdale School to raise the alarm.

The inquest heard that Day had appeared before a disciplinary panel and been dismissed from Leicestershire Police force for misconduct a week before the attack on December 8 last year.

The nature of the misconduct was not revealed during the inquest but reports at the time said he had been sacked for misusing police systems and matters “concerning honesty and integrity”.

Detective Inspector Matthew Healey, from Nottinghamshire Police, said Day had been informed hours before the stabbings that the newspapers had contacted police asking about his dismissal. Officers were called to his home after his daughter Kimberley ran to her nearby school, having being stabbed in the neck.