CCTV shows triple killer visited garden centre hours before crossbow murders

Shorouk Express

CCTV footage has shown triple killer Kyle Clifford visiting a garden centre while pushing his niece in a pram just hours before he murdered his former partner, her sister and her mother.

Just hours before he used a crossbow to kill Louise Hunt and her sister Hanna, and a knife to murder her mother Carol, he was seen at the centre in Enfield with his family members, before travelling to the Hunt home in Bushey, Hertfordshire.

Jurors were shown footage of Clifford parking his car in streets near the family home before knocking on the door.

CCTV screengrab of Kyle Clifford at a garden centre in Enfield on the morning of the day of the murders (Hertfordshire Police/PA) (PA Media)

Footage from a camera at the front of the home, in Ashlyn Close, shows the 26-year-old on the doorstep and audio recorded his conversation with his former partner’s mother.

He is dressed all in black, wearing a rucksack and holding a white plastic bag.

Carol Hunt, 61, the wife of BBC racing commentator John Hunt, answers the door and Clifford says he is “just dropping off some of Louise’s stuff”.

Mrs Hunt asks Clifford how he is and he replies: “I’m good, thank you. What’s wrong? You look like…”

Mrs Hunt responds: “I’ve seen a ghost.”

Prosecutors told Cambridge Crown Court that Clifford deceived Mrs Hunt to gain access to the address and then took a knife from his backpack to kill her.

In audio, Clifford says he has got them a card “to say bye” and has brought items to return.

Carol Hunt, Hannah (top right) and Louise (bottom right) were all murdered by Clifford (Supplied)

Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said: “As the defendant went into the door he took the backpack from his back and he spoke of the card.”

Further CCTV footage shows him leaving the address – to collect the crossbow from his car – returning with it hidden under a sheet and letting himself back into the house with a key.

Jurors were told he waited at the house with the crossbow to kill his 25-year-old former partner, who had been working in a dog grooming pod in the garden, and her 28-year-old sister, Hannah Hunt, when she returned home from work.

Ms Morgan said that in a 999 call to police, Hannah Hunt said: “My sister’s ex-boyfriend has come in and he shot us.”

She said that when asked who had been shot, Hannah Hunt said “my mum and my sister and me”.

Detective Constable Alex Leckie agreed with the prosecutor that Hannah Hunt then tried to “provide police with details of the address and what was going on inside the address”.

Jury shown moment crossbow triple killer Kyle Clifford buys rope and petrol cans days before murdering family of John Hunt. (Hertfordshire Police/PA)

The defendant previously admitted three counts of murder, one of false imprisonment against Louise Hunt, and two counts of possession of offensive weapons – the crossbow and the knife.

Clifford, of Enfield, north London, denies a single charge of rape, against Louise Hunt.

Mr Hunt watched proceedings from the public gallery on Wednesday, and a woman left the public gallery in tears after the footage at the doorstep of the family home was played.

Jurors were earlier shown footage of Clifford at a garden centre in Enfield on the morning of the day of the murders.

Clifford has (Hertfordshire Police/PA) (PA Wire)

Detective Constable Alex Leckie said Clifford was at the garden centre with his mother, father and niece.

She said Clifford received an incoming call, which went to voicemail, from a woman “the defendant was in another relationship with at that time”.

Jurors were also shown footage of Clifford at a gym on 5 July.

Clifford, who is being tried in his absence, is alleged to have become “enraged” when Louise Hunt ended their 18-month relationship before he “carefully planned and executed” the murders.

The prosecutor asked forensic scientist Martin Whittaker if the findings of intimate samples taken from Louise Hunt after her death on 9 July last year could be explained by sexual intercourse taking place 16 days prior, on 23 June.

Kyle Clifford at a gym on the morning of July 5 last year, four days before the day he fatally shot his former partner and her sister with a crossbow and stabbed their mother to death with a butcher’s knife (Hertfordshire Police/PA) (PA Media)

Mr Whittaker said that in his opinion the “presence and quantity” of DNA in the intimate sample “cannot reasonably be explained by Kyle Clifford only having had” sex with Louise Hunt on 23 June.

The scientist said that the findings “can be explained if when (Clifford) was in her company on the day of her death Kyle Clifford had … intercourse with Louise Hunt”.

Prosecutors allege Clifford raped Louise Hunt on the day of her death, on 9 July.

Phil Bradley KC, for Clifford, said the defence case is that Clifford and Louise Hunt last had sexual intercourse on 23 June.

The trial continues.

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