Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 36 - Hancock - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[music playing] NARRATOR: A peaceful village, a couple resolved to enjoy the new year.
But gym teacher Helen Almey and her lover Martin Griffiths simply don't know the danger that they're
in from Helen's former husband. He left the house with two large kitchen knives and got in his car.
His own mother telephones the police. My son has taken two knives. NARRATOR: Minutes later, head teacher Rhys Hancock
also calls 999 with news about the woman who was once his wife. It was just horrific.
It was almost something out of a horror film. NARRATOR: Had jealousy driven a respected head teacher to kill?
[theme music] [music playing] Rhys Hancock and Helen Almey appeared to be a match made in heaven.
Helen and Rhys had met while they were at university. They were both training to be teachers.
They've known each other for a very long time. They've been in a relationship for a very long time.
NARRATOR: In 2014, they bought a 400,000-pound house in rural Derbyshire. It's a beautiful part in England.
The village of Duffield is quite a quaint place, really, quite an affluent area.
ANDY DONE-JOHNSON: A lot of money naturally moves into it. There's quite a few retired football managers
that are residents there. Rolls Royce is a big employer. There's nice quaint wine bars, nice public houses,
nice restaurants. It has everything that one would wish for in a village. There's no sense of crime, no sense of danger.
The most dangerous thing in Duffield is probably the main road that runs through it.
NARRATOR: The couple were doing well in their teaching careers. He was a head of a special needs school.
She was a popular PE teacher. Rhys and Helen Hancock have got a huge amount of synergy
in their lives. He's a high achiever. ANDY DONE-JOHNSON: He was described, actually, as a very caring and committed and passionate
teacher. EMMA KENNY: To become a head teacher at 39 is a big deal. But he also shows that he wants to be at the top of his game.
He likes power. NARRATOR: Helen, meanwhile, was a much loved member of staff at a high school in Burton, 15 miles away.
EMMA KENNY: Helen is one of those people who is the full package. She's very beautiful to look at.
People describe her as dazzling. She's a really keen athlete. She keeps herself fit.
She's a PE teacher. And she's somebody that's socially on a community base is really well liked.
She really is one of those people who has it all. Helen grew up in Duffield. She attended the local primary schools and secondary schools.
New Zealand Lane, where she lived, is literally around the corner from the school
that she attended. So she was just one of those people who everybody seemed to know.
She was out that she was very engaged with her community. NARRATOR: Behind the apparently idyllic facade,
all was not well in the couple's marriage, as a local newspaper reporter would one day discover.
My name is Andy Done-Johnson. I'm a journalist specializing in crime and court reporting.
And I've done that for publications in Derbyshire and the East Midlands for the past 20 odd years.
I spoke to a number of local residents. I was made aware that there had been problems in the marriage
on a fairly on, off basis, ever since the year they got together. NARRATOR: One of those problems was Rhys Hancock's infidelity.
He'd had an affair with a colleague and lost his job because of that. But he pulled himself back and got himself a headship.
His affair led to a lot of rows, a lot of fighting, a lot of screaming and shouting.
NARRATOR: Despite everything, the couple stayed together. It's always Helen that forgives him.
NARRATOR: In 2016, things began to fall apart. They'd had an argument. He'd thrown a cup at her, which hadn't hit her,
but it had smashed on the wall. And some of the shrapnel had landed on the children.
The neighbors were concerned. They couldn't ignore it. You know, this wasn't hidden domestic abuse.
This was very visible domestic abuse. And everybody seemed to know about it in the community.
I don't think he was very well liked in the local community. I think some of his dirty laundry
had probably sort of seeped out. And so, you know, people knew some of the things
that he'd got involved with. There's a lot of reports from neighbors of constant arguments.
JANE MONCKTON-SMITH: The neighbors talked about the marriage. It was quite noisy and violent.
NARRATOR: Helen reached a decision. It had been a nuisance in the relationship for a very long time.
I think that the perception was that she was very forgiving for a very long time.
And enough was enough. He'd gone too far. NARRATOR: Helen threw him out, although Hancock's
version of events on social media told a different story. Posted on Facebook, I want to see less of Helen.
I don't want her to be part of my life anymore. He announced on Facebook that he never
wants to see his wife again. TONY KENT: To be washing his private linen in public,
as a man who is certainly, at that stage, on the route to becoming a headmaster in a specialist school,
has got to be deemed unusual. NARRATOR: As before in their relationship, things went from one extreme to the other.
The marriage between Helen and Hancock had been up and down and up and down for a very long time.
They have periods where they are back in a relationship. They have periods where they're not in a relationship.
She kept ending things with him, getting him to leave the family home. He would come back, and he would manipulate the situation,
probably through guilt. NARRATOR: Within months, Hancock was back at the New Zealand Lane house.
Now they've got children. They've got a house together. They've got ties. And as a result of that, while they drift apart,
they also drift together again. NARRATOR: He even returned to Facebook, this time,
to pay gushing tribute to the wife who stood by him yet again. It gives us a sense that, emotionally,
he's not quite balanced. We could take that as being the first hint, that what was going on in his domestic life
was having an impact on his mental health. ANDY DONE-JOHNSON: They'd separated on a number of occasions.
I think in 2016, they got as far as the family court to divorce. And at that point, they both decided to give it another go.
NARRATOR: Later that year, Helen gave birth to a third child. 2016 onwards, it's breaking down.
It slowly, [inaudible] drip feed of a relationship deteriorating. I think Rhys caused her just sadness
more than anything else, I think, in those later years. NARRATOR: For the next three years,
the couple lurched between separation and reconciliation. And now we see the marriage deteriorating.
It clearly didn't get back to where it needed to be. The reality is the relationship
of some sort, the messy relationship continues to mid 2019. And yet it continues in a bad way.
NARRATOR: That summer, Helen finally decided enough was enough. She demanded that Hancock move out.
And she's got to that point where she's thought, I'm worth more than you. And she leaves him.
Finally, she ended it completely. He was forced to move out and go and live with his mother
in a village called Etwall, which is sort of South Derbyshire, about 10, 15 miles from Duffield.
Everything else, the whole facade, has come crashing down around him. NARRATOR: The successful high achiever was in his late 30s,
back living with his mum. The marriage is over. The house is his wife's. The children are with his wife.
For Helen, it becomes almost like a new lease of life. When she finally said, this is it,
and got him out of the home, all the neighbors were relieved, happy for her. So that gives us an insight into how bad this marriage was.
TONY KENT: She struggled to make this marriage work. And when she's accepted that it's over,
when she's accepted that it can't work, it's been almost like she's been gifted back her freedom,
and she's been gifted back her future. NARRATOR: Finally free to move on with her life,
Helen took a decisive new step. She met somebody else. NARRATOR: What would happen when her violent estranged
husband found out? With everything falling around his ears, there's got to be a residue of hope, isn't there?
There's got to be a residue of, I can get this back. We can make this work. We can have it all again.
And unfortunately, then the time comes that he discovers he can't. Everything had become irretrievable for him.
It was, I think, desperate. I think for the first time in this marriage, Rhys Hancock realized that he'd lost.
NARRATOR: Newly separated from her abusive husband, sports fan Helen was rediscovering the single life.
Helen was very, very sporty. I mean, she was just fanatical about fitness, about exercise.
You know, she ran. She went to the gym. You know, she was just naturally good at sport,
and that was her thing. She begins to engage more again in life, in the community.
She becomes Helen again because she doesn't have this distraction. Helen's very community orientated,
and that says something about her personality and character. She's one of those empathic and compassionate people.
So she's part of the neighborhood watch. She likes being involved in community sport.
She plays for local teams. This is somebody who likes to be social. NARRATOR: It was through sport, more specifically,
the Shelton Striders Club, that Helen met Martin Griffiths. She met Martin at a running club, which she attended, which
Martin attended, I think which, at some time, both she and Rhys Hancock had been members of.
NARRATOR: Jeanette Stevenson is a criminal barrister working for the Crown Prosecution Service.
Helen was a very sporty lady, very into outdoor pursuits. Martin also was into climbing and things like that.
When Helen meets Martin Griffiths, she really does meet a perfect reflection. He is sporty, athletic.
He's driven. He's creative. He has his own creative agency. So he's wealthy. He's done really well.
But what really underpins who he is, is his personality. He's lovely. JEANETTE STEVENSON: He wasn't disliked by anybody.
He was the kind of man that was a bit of a go-getter. You know, he'd got his own business.
He's like a breath of fresh air. Helen falls for March. Martin falls for Helen. It is a very, very quick relationship.
NARRATOR: Martin was eight years older and also separated. By late 2019, he and Helen had become lovers.
Helen, for the first time in quite a long time, was herself again. She wasn't-- she wasn't downtrodden.
She wasn't troubled. In those months together, they really do feel like they've got their second chance at life.
She'd found somebody else. And she was happy. NARRATOR: As Helen looked to the future,
her estranged husband, Rhys Hancock, had taken a sobering trip into the past, living at his mother's house in Etwall, 15 minutes' drive away.
While Rhys is kidding himself somewhat that this is all rebuildable, while he's in his mum's house,
persuading himself that he can have it all again, well, Helen isn't. Helen is rebuilding her life.
Helen is building her future. NARRATOR: At the same time, Helen tried to maintain contact between her children
and their father. Rhys was attending the family home to look after the children so she could go to work.
I think that probably contributed quite significantly to Rhys thinking that there was a chance
of the relationship rekindling. She'd always taken him back in the past. I think he very much felt that she was
going to take him back again. And the fact that he was being allowed into the house
was, you know, probably a fairly big part of that. NARRATOR: In late December 2019, reality
dawned for Rhys Hancock. When he went to the family home, it became quite clear to him that there
was no future with Helen. It seems to be the first time that he's had that really
driven home for him. Helen was living in the home she'd always lived in. And she had a new relationship.
NARRATOR: This was all a revelation to Rhys. And it prompted a furious outburst.
And his reaction was extreme. His reaction was almost violent. There was a big argument at Christmas.
He reacted aggressively enough that Helen had to call the police. JANE MONCKTON-SMITH: She had phoned 999.
The police were aware. The police had called at the house. Nothing happens. The police don't arrest him.
It's left as it is. He goes home. NARRATOR: Christmas 2019, Hancock learns something
he doesn't like about Martin. This man had come around on Christmas Day and cooked them breakfast in the morning.
I think the inference there being that he'd, obviously, spent the night. Hancock found out that this new man had been in the house.
That was the first that Rhys Hancock knew about it. NARRATOR: Rhys Hancock was incensed.
He still thought that Helen was his wife, his property. How dare this man be at my house over Christmas
with my children? He feels entitled to certain things-- a wife, his children, to be in charge of the wife and the children,
the home, all sorts of things. He doesn't just want them. He is entitled to them.
And there's a big difference. NARRATOR: Hancock spent the next few days checking out the children's story for himself.
He started to obsess and started to make his own investigations. He was constantly pestering Helen's family and friends,
trying to find out information about Martin. Who is this guy? Who is my wife seeing?
He was quite quickly able to establish that she'd met this person through the running club.
And I think through the running club, he was kind of able to establish who Martin Griffiths was,
where he lived. NARRATOR: In his investigations, Rhys Hancock paid a visit to Helen's father.
He turned up with, you know, a bunch of flowers and a present. And he was really trying to appear like he was
just paying a friendly visit. But he was there specifically to find out about Martin Griffiths.
NARRATOR: Rhys even managed to track down Martin's estranged wife. He was able to make contact with the Martin Griffiths's
former partner via social media. And again, he was asking very, very probing questions.
He certainly wanted people to know that he knew about this man. He now knew who he was.
And now he knew where he lived. He very much saw himself as the injured party in all this.
Over the days from Boxing Day to New Year, he's clearly wound himself up more and more.
NARRATOR: If he wanted to punish Helen and Martin, he would have to bide his time.
In between Christmas and New Year, Martin and Helen had taken a vacation to Snowdonia.
And they'd been climbing there. NARRATOR: Then Rhys Hancock picked up useful information.
Hancock finds out that Helen and Martin, her new boyfriend, are going back to the family home to celebrate New Year.
NARRATOR: Surely, they were safe from Rhys, the pillar of the local community-- or perhaps not.
December 31, 2019, two very different evenings unfold for Helen Almey and her estranged
husband, Rhys Hancock. She went out with her new boyfriend to celebrate New Year's Eve.
She's got a really nice career man. He's treating her wonderfully. They're happy.
They seem to be unifying their families. JANE MONCKTON-SMITH: They wanted to spend the new year together.
They were probably celebrating their new life. NARRATOR: For Hancock, things looked much bleaker.
How dare anybody have a new beginning whilst he's suffering, living with his mum.
He's a high achiever. Things go right for Rhys. Things don't fail. Marriages don't fail.
But it had failed. Probably because of the type of person, he was feeling a bit humiliated by the whole thing.
NARRATOR: Hancock went to the local pub. He got talking to women in the pub and, for some reason,
made a brief visit back to his mother's house with these two women. Heaven knows what on Earth that conversation
might have been. NARRATOR: When he finally returned alone from the pub after seeing in the new year, Hancock's jealousy
over Helen and Martin erupted. He was very down. He was very morose. But he was also very, very aggressive.
He was not going to allow that to happen. EMMA KENNY: You can imagine him sitting at home
and really feeling triggered by this knowledge, the idea that someone else is sleeping in his bed
with his wife in his home. And now, this next year is going to be their year. And he can't stand it.
He can't bear it. At some point on New Year's Eve, he made the decision how he was going to deal with this.
NARRATOR: The first person he told was his mother. It's not unusual for people like Hancock
to tell people what they intend to do. And part of the reason they feel so comfortable
sometimes is that they feel so justified. They think that whoever they tell is automatically
going to be in solidarity with them, is going to say, I understand. NARRATOR: What had Rhys Hancock decided to do?
He'd turn around to his mum and said, it's them or me. NARRATOR: Drunk and ranting, Rhys Hancock's outburst
left his mother Christine seriously frightened. He's got himself into this kind of psychological fit,
where he's outraged and humiliated, but most of all, because he feels so entitled, he feels justified.
And she witnesses this. She sees him descending into more and more of a depression,
of an anger of the kind of conditions that you don't want to see someone you love being in.
He's in the darkest possible place. Now his mum, who is probably much more reasonable,
is looking at her son and thinking, oh, this is really serious. His mother panicked, but was able to, I think,
talk him down. One, I've got to protect Helen. Two, I don't want my son to go to prison for the rest
of his life over this. And, you know, and I've got grandchildren who I want to protect as well.
NARRATOR: Christine thought she'd succeeded in settling her son down. He was sat in the chair quite soon after.
He was quite calm, having a drink. His mother fell asleep, I think content that he
was all right, that he was over with the worst of this episode. NARRATOR: In fact, Hancock was brooding as furiously as ever.
Now, unbeknown to her, Rhys then got in his car and drove to his former home, where Helen and Martin
were either in bed or still out and would be returning too soon. And he sat outside the house for quite some time.
NARRATOR: Whatever he was contemplating, Rhys Hancock wasn't ready to put his plan into action--
not yet. ANDY DONE-JOHNSON: So Rhys then returned to his mother's house in Etwall and woke her up at about 4 o'clock in the morning
and said, "I'm going to kill them." NARRATOR: Having revealed his intentions to his mother,
Hancock tried to sabotage any attempts that she might make to prevent him. He then took his mother's landline and disconnected it.
He made efforts to disconnect the internet cabling. And he asked her for her own mobile phone,
which she didn't know where it was and wouldn't give it to him. So at that point, he actually patted his mother down,
searching for this mobile phone. NARRATOR: Before heading back out into the night,
Hancock armed himself. Eventually he left the house with two knives, two large kitchen knives, and got in his car
and drove back to Duffield. NARRATOR: As Rhys Hancock made the 15-minute drive to Duffield, his mother was distraught.
His mother was able to find her mobile phone and, at that point, made a fairly frantic call to police,
explaining what had just happened and what she feared was going to happen. His own mother telephones the police.
My son has taken two knives. He is going to this address. He is going to hurt this person, Helen.
She even gives the police Helen's phone number. It must have been awful for the mum
and is so much pressure for her to have actually phoned the police. NARRATOR: Rhys was on his way to his wife's home
with one thing on his mind-- revenge. At that point, psychologically, nothing was going to stop him.
He was really wound up. He was angry. He was outraged. He was humiliated. He's got the knives.
He knew what he was going to do. He went round there, all fired up. NARRATOR: The police were well aware
of Hancock's track record. They'd been called to a threatening incident just a few days earlier.
Now, they tried to raise the alarm. The police had been told that he was on his way,
that he intended to harm Helen and Martin, and that he had knives with him. The police operator that answered
that 999 call was able to retrieve Helen's mobile phone. And she tried for 10 minutes or so,
whilst the police were on the way, to phone Helen and warn her. The police did call Helen, but it went straight to voicemail.
The calls were unanswered. NARRATOR: It was a missed opportunity that could have changed everything.
Had Helen had that phone on that night, she might have been pre-warned. NARRATOR: Sometime after 4:00 AM on New Year's Day,
Rhys Hancock pulled up in New Zealand Lane. He doesn't even slam the car door. He just parks it in the middle of the road
because he knows this is the end of the line for him. This is a man who is in a frenzy, an absolute frenzy.
I imagine he didn't even slam the doors because he's onto the fact his mother will have called the police,
and he's very time limited. That's how determined he is. NARRATOR: Determined he may have been,
but he still had to get inside the house. He had his own key, but Helen's key was on the other side, in the front door.
He couldn't get in the front door. So he climbed the fence into the back garden.
NARRATOR: There, the trusting nature of Duffield Village life worked in Hancock's favor.
She had left the back door open, which sometimes people do when they feel they're
living in a safe environment. So he just let himself into the house. Had it been that night that she'd
lock that door, what happened might not have happened. NARRATOR: Helen and her new love, Martin Griffiths,
were asleep upstairs. JEANETTE STEVENSON: They'd been out for a drink that night,
retired back to Helen's house, where, of course, they perhaps carried on the celebrations together.
Went to bed at whatever time it was, you know, both comfortably got into bed together.
He knew they were together. He picked up multiple knives. He knew he was going to get them together.
NARRATOR: What happened in the next few minutes would appall the officers who responded
to a chilling 999 call. He's on a mission, and that mission is to kill. [music playing]
NARRATOR: Driven by jealousy, Rhys Hancock was out for revenge on the wife that he believed had betrayed him,
and her lover. Hancock had decided that he was not only going to kill Helen, he was going to kill her new boyfriend, Martin,
as well. The plan all along was he was going to kill both of them. He was going to punish both of them
for what they had done to him. Imagine being in bed. You've had a lovely night out.
You're celebrating new year, your new life, your new love, your new hope. And suddenly, you wake up to being stabbed
by a deranged, rageful man. NARRATOR: Helen's new partner was the first to be attacked.
Martin Griffiths was stabbed 37 times. Martin's jugular vein had been slashed. He cut Martin's throat, which led him to bleed out.
And obviously, when that happens, people die very, very quickly. Hancock kills Martin first because he would want his wife
to see the person that she was in love with die in front of her. NARRATOR: Hancock then turned his attention to his wife.
He made incisions, wounds, which you can only describe, I think, as sexually motivated.
JEANETTE STEVENSON: One paramedic said in his whole career-- and one must think about the horrific things
that paramedics must see-- in his whole career, he hadn't seen, you know, such a brutal scene of violence.
It was a frantic attack. It's been described by some people as a bloodbath. Both Helen and Martin have made efforts to escape,
to get out of the room. But neither of them made it through the door alive. NARRATOR: By 426 AM, Rhys Hancock's killing frenzy
was over. Rhys goes downstairs, walks out the front door, sits down and calls the police himself,
and tells them what he has done. And then he waits for their arrival, while Helen is still clinging on to life upstairs.
NARRATOR: Officers reached the house minutes later. The first officer on the scene described seeing Rhys Hancock
on his own phone, reporting himself to the police, covered in blood. It was just horrific.
It was almost something out of a horror film. The first thing that Rhys said to the arresting officer was,
it's not like I didn't do it, is it? I'm going to plead guilty. I just couldn't allow her to live.
The police officer put him straight onto the floor, applied the handcuffs. He was cooperative.
Martin is dead by the time the police get on the scene. Helen dies shortly after.
JEANETTE STEVENSON: What the victims must have gone through and what the police officers and paramedics must have gone
through when they turned up and saw that scene, it was just absolutely horrific.
NARRATOR: The next morning, the quiet rural village of Duffield was in shock. [music playing]
As a local journalist, I obviously pay a keen interest in news. But when it's literally, you know, on your doorstep,
then you kind of become more a local resident than the local reporter. And it becomes shocking.
It was very disturbing. I recall waking up New Year's morning, going on to Facebook, like we all do,
and seeing straight away that something had happened in the village. ANDY DONE-JOHNSON: I remember on the day it happened, you know,
taking a drive over, just to look at the scene. And, you know, and there was a big forensic tent
in the middle of the road. And there was police tape, you know, all over New Zealand Lane.
And it was cornered off. NARRATOR: Stunned villagers paid their own tributes to the popular PE teacher.
In the days that followed, the road was opened again. And there were just bouquet after bouquet of flowers
left outside the home. NARRATOR: Mourners turned out in their hundreds. ANDY DONE-JOHNSON: When the funeral was held,
the church in the village, Saint Altman's, was packed to the brim. The wake took place here at Makeney Hall.
And again, it was packed to the rafters. She was very, very well respected. NARRATOR: Rhys Hancock's trial should
have been straightforward. The bizarre circumstances of 2020 made sure that wasn't the case.
Within days of the double murder, he appeared before magistrates. It was in courtroom one at Derby Magistrates'
Court, which is a very big, a very old, a very austere court. It's a very large courtroom.
Very, very tall ceilings, you know, old, sort of dark. You know, very old dark wood, something that I suppose
you might see on TV dramas. You know, I had 30 odd journalists sat behind me. And literally, they were hanging onto my every word.
You could hear a pin drop. And it was ordered that there was going to be some reports done on him, you know,
his mental capacity. NARRATOR: Even at that early stage, some details of the crime were revealed to the court.
And when I was saying what happened, especially the fact that he called the police himself to say,
I've just murdered my wife and her partner in bed, I could hear the journalist behind sort
of gasping in absolute shock. It was never in question that he actually carried out the killing, never in question at all.
Of course, he called the police and he admitted it. There was some suggestion that at that point,
the defense may go for a diminished responsibility defense, which would negate it down to a manslaughter charge,
potentially. And so, a provisional date was set, I think, for psychiatric reports to come back in.
The question was his mental capacity. Was he able to inform-- form that intent to kill or to cause serious harm?
Or was he capacitated mentally in some way, which would mean that it would be manslaughter and not murder?
NARRATOR: And then, with psychiatric reports due to be prepared ahead of the Crown Court
hearing, everything ground to a halt because of the COVID-19 pandemic. When lockdown restrictions were lifted,
experts were able to give their verdict on Hancock's mental state. The reports that were carried out on him
did not give him any basis for it to be manslaughter, and that he knew exactly what he was doing.
You know, he knew that he was going to go and murder those people. He did it and he knew that what he did was wrong.
NARRATOR: Hancock finally entered his plea in July 2020. Not many people plead guilty to murder.
I think Rhys Hancock is perhaps the second one I've seen in the 20 years that I've been doing this.
There's little point pleading guilty because you've got a mandatory life sentence anyway.
So most people take-- take a punt, I suppose, that they may be able to argue their way out of it.
Rhys didn't do that. And as I say, it was very, very rare. NARRATOR: The guilty plea of Rhys Hancock removed
the need for a full trial. Because there was no trial, because he pleaded guilty,
we were spared, I think, a lot of the nitty gritty. NARRATOR: The sentencing was held
online because of continuing coronavirus restrictions. When somebody is in the dark and somebody is facing
such serious charges, something horrific like this, of course, everybody looks at the suspect, you know, the defendant.
You know, does he look like a murderer? Does he look like somebody that could commit what
he's alleged to have committed? Rhys Hancock did appear, you know, immaculately well groomed on every appearance
that he made before the court. NARRATOR: Despite his impeccable presentation, Rhys Hancock continued to show no signs of remorse.
ANDY DONE-JOHNSON: He was absolutely motionless throughout. You know, no fidgeting, just staring
straight in front of him. He always said that he was going to plead guilty, putting his hands up for what he'd done.
And I guess he was taking the consequences. And all I can recall is looking over to him.
And he just absolutely had no look on his face whatsoever. It was almost as though nobody was there.
It was almost an act of defiance, I suppose. You know, he showed no emotion. You know, he'd done it.
That was that. NARRATOR: Rhys Hancock's crimes left the village of Duffield in a state of lasting shock.
It had a massive impact, I think, on this community. JEANETTE STEVENSON: Straight away, the people's
first thoughts must have been, how on Earth can anybody defend themselves with such
a brutal, voracious attack? And I think that element just shook everybody to the core.
Things like that don't happen in the field. You know, so people will be talking about this
for years and years and years. This incident will always be remembered by the people
that live in Duffield. I live in Duffield. It has left a lasting impression on the people that live there.
NARRATOR: Rhys Hancock was jailed for life with a minimum term of 35 years, reduced
by four years in recognition of his guilty plea. When she was passing sentence, the judge told him basically
that he was on the cusp of a whole life order, which means that he would never be let out.
JEANETTE STEVENSON: For somebody that comes across to people as a calm school teacher, professional,
trustworthy, to snap with no notice the way that he did, can that person ever be deemed to be safe to be released?
And then he was led away. NARRATOR: Rhys Hancock had murdered his wife, Helen, the mother of his three children,
because of her new relationship with Martin Griffiths. He just couldn't handle that.
It was very much sexual jealousy. The children in all of this have lost both parents.
One can't imagine how horrific that is to lose both the parents in such drastic circumstances.
Not only has their mother been taken away from them in such tragic circumstances, but it's
their father who they trusted and loved that took their mother away. How awful. [music playing]

Rhys Hancock couldn't accept that his wife Helen had found love with her new partner Martin. In an orgy of violence, he took his revenge.

Though wedded couples vow to stay together until death do they part, this new true crime series looks at what happens when a groom or bride causes their beloved's death.

Brief Summary

Helen Almey's estranged husband murders her and her new partner in a jealous rage on New Year's Day 2020.

Key points

A Match Made in Heaven. Rhys Hancock and Helen Almey seemed perfect together, but trouble brewed beneath the surface.
The Breaking Point. Helen finally decides to end her tumultuous marriage with Rhys, seeking freedom.
A Dangerous Decision. Rhys's jealousy leads him to a dark decision on New Year's Eve.
A Missed Opportunity. The police attempted to warn Helen but calls went unanswered, leading to tragedy.
Rhys Hancock's Revenge. Driven by jealousy, Rhys Hancock was out for revenge on his wife and her lover.
The Brutal Attack. In a chilling frenzy, Rhys attacked Martin first, stabbing him 37 times.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was just horrific. It was almost something out of a horror film.

A police officer's reaction to the crime scene.

0:44WatchJun 8, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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