Taxi Driver Online

6 Mar 2008

Man who killed son, four, given life

A father who murdered his four-year-old son and stabbed his teenage
daughter to take revenge on his estranged wife for having an affair has
been jailed for life.

Christopher Hawkins, 47, who was covered in blood, went to a pub and
ordered a pint of beer after the attack at his home. He confessed to a
customer that he had stabbed his children, Ryan and Donna, 14.

Hawkins told police: "I will commit suicide for what I've done. I've stabbed
my son and my daughter. Why did I do it? Because my wife is having an
affair and I took it out on them."

Ryan, described by Hawkins as the "perfect" son, had been spending a few
days with his father following his fourth birthday the week before. Donna
had called to collect him from the terrace house in Slaithwaite, near
Huddersfield, West Yorks, when the attack happened.

She had told Ryan to get his coat when Hawkins turned round and said,
"I'm sorry" before lunging at her with a knife, stabbing her 13 times.

Donna told police that he stopped when she said that she did not hate him.
However, he told her: "I'm going to kill Ryan now."

Donna said she remembered thinking: "No, I can't watch this", and turned
away. She managed to flee into the street where passers-by gave her first
aid until police and paramedics arrived.

Ryan was found on the sofa in the house. He had been stabbed nine times,
twice in the heart. Hawkins denied murder and attempted murder on the
grounds of diminished responsibility, claiming he was suffering
abnormality of mind at the time.

He showed no emotion as the jury convicted him at the end of an
eight-day trial at Leeds Crown Court.

Sentencing him to a minimum of 21 years, Mr Justice Wilkie told him: "A
more horrific crime it is hard to imagine than savagely and repeatedly to
stab your young son who in his agony had tried to fend off blows from one
of the people he was most entitled to expect love and affection. I'm
satisfied you used him cold-heartedly as a vehicle for avenging yourself
on your wife."

As he was led from the dock, Hawkins shouted to Donna and her
16-year-old sister, Natalie: "I love you, Donna, I love you, Natalie."

Hawkins, a sheet metal worker, and the children's mother, Valerie Gee,
41, had separated four months before the attack. However, after the split
he discovered that she had begun an affair with a driver at her uncle's taxi
firm while they were still living together.

Hawkins, who had taken to drinking 20 pints of beer a day after the split,
had written notes describing his anger at the affair. He said in one that he
and Ryan would die on Sept 16 - his son's birthday.

Miss Gee said: "He deserves everything he has got… I don't feel sorry for
him at all."

Source: Telegraph.co.uk
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