A triple murderer sits in a wheelchair and answers no comment in video of a police interview conducted 10 weeks after he murdered his former partner, her sister and their mother.
Kyle Clifford, 26, was left paralysed from the chest down after he went on the run for 20 hours after the killings then shot himself with a crossbow as police closed in on him.
He spent 10 weeks in hospital with a round-the-clock police guard before he could be interviewed, on September 16, for his attacks on July 9 last year.
Triple killer Kyle Clifford was interviewed by police after a 10-week hospital stay, having shot himself with a crossbow (Hertfordshire Police/PA)
Clifford, wearing a light-coloured jumper and dark tracksuit bottoms, sits impassively in a wheelchair with his hands resting on his lap as he is interviewed by two police officers.
The defendant strokes his beard at points during the footage, released by Hertfordshire Police, as he refuses to engage with a series of questions.
He shows no emotion when asked about the killings but appears to choke back tears after he is asked about a note on his phone, written about himself.
The note, addressed to different family members, begins: “Please don’t think of this as me throwing my life away.”
The interviewing officer asks Clifford if he is ok to carry on and the defendant gives a thumbs up.
Clifford had tricked his way into the home of his ex-girlfriend Louise Hunt, 25, telling her 61-year-old mother Carol Hunt that he was returning some of Louise Hunt’s possessions.
The crossbow used by Kyle Clifford (Hertfordshire Police/PA)
Once inside he stabbed Carol Hunt, the wife of BBC and Sky Sports Racing commentator John Hunt, to death with a knife hidden inside his rucksack.
He then fetched a crossbow from his car and laid in wait for his former partner, who was working in a dog grooming pod in the garden of the family home in Bushey, Hertfordshire.
Clifford restrained and raped Louise Hunt before shooting her dead with a crossbow, and he also used the crossbow to shoot dead her 28-year-old sister Hannah when she returned home from work.
In a note on Clifford’s phone, read out by an officer during his police interview, the defendant said: “Please don’t think of this as me throwing my life away.
“I have lived and I am grateful for everything and everyone that has been a part of it.
“It is now my time to leave and be at peace as this is what I ultimately want.
A court artist sketch of Kyle Clifford appearing via videolink at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, London (Elizabeth Cook/PA)
“I know you will all have so many questions and wish you could have done something different to prevent this however none of you have failed and there is simply nothing any of you could have done.
“This is my decision to just be at peace.
“You all have to take care of each other and speak to each other because that will be the best thing for you all.
“I love you all so much.”
The officers asked him if he had already planned the three murders when he wrote that note, and Clifford whispered “no comment”.
He also refused to engage with questions about a note on his phone, addressed “to myself”, where he said: “I don’t want to live my life without her.”
Clifford said in the note: “I don’t want to experience new things.
“Nothing I can think of can make me happy.
“I know I could have gone to therapy, found faith and become a new better person but I just simply don’t want to.
“I am so sorry I didn’t wait to move on and find my future wife, have the children I always wanted.”
The officer told him it was a “very self-centred note and doesn’t take into account anyone else”, adding that there is “no apology to the Hunt family, is there, the only apology is to yourself”.
Clifford admitted at an earlier hearing at Cambridge Crown Court to three counts of murder, one of false imprisonment against Louise Hunt, and two counts of possession of offensive weapons – the crossbow and the knife.
He was found guilty of the rape of Louise Hunt following a trial, and is due to be sentenced for all counts on Tuesday.