World's Most Evil Killers - Season 5, Episode 1 - Phillip Austin - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: In June 2000, the Austins enjoyed what was to be their last family holiday.
A month after this home video was filmed, three members of the family were dead.
On the 10th of July, Claire Austin didn't turn up for her shift as a carer. Her husband, Phillip visited her place of work.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: He told them that his wife wouldn't be in that day because she had back trouble.
A man apparently at ease with himself, and with the world. NARRATOR: In reality, Claire was lying lifeless
in a pool of blood on her kitchen floor, murdered by her own husband. But Phillip Austin wasn't finished yet.
Later that day, he calmly collected his children from school. ANDY TENNET: This isn't a red mist decision.
This isn't a loss of temper. This is a reasoned decision that a man has made, that he's going to murder both of his children.
NARRATOR: After taking them out for a fish and chips supper, he strangled them. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He killed his entire family.
He killed the family that he had created, and he did so in such a cool and such a calm way.
CAROL QUINN: He tore half of my family out of our lives NARRATOR: Phillip Austin had committed the unthinkable,
and undoubtedly become one of the world's most evil killers. [THEME MUSIC] NARRATOR: In the summer of 2000, the Austin
family had disappeared, and there was no answer on the home phone. This was completely out of character,
and as former detective inspector Andy Tennet remembers, local people were starting to worry.
The children had not been at school for a week, and this was during term time. No application had been made to take
the children out of school. The community itself were a little bit anxious because they hadn't seen the family for a while.
In fact, one neighbor had been out to Claire's car, and had even taken the measure of marking
the tires against the curb to see if the car moved overnight. But it didn't. NARRATOR: The horrifying truth behind their absence
would soon be revealed. On Monday the 17th of July 2000, the bodies of 31-year-old Claire Austin and her children,
Kieran, aged eight, and Jade, seven, were discovered in the family home. The prime suspect was their thirty-one-year-old
husband and father, Phillip Austin, who was nowhere to be found. The damage that he did was not just limited to the three souls
who lost their lives, but it affected everyone, relatives, friends. It was a desperate, desperate thing to do.
NARRATOR: The quiet suburban street in the Standens Barn area of Northampton had been the family's home for eight years.
They appeared to neighbors to be an ordinary family. Now their home was a crime scene.
When we have a family who appear to be normal from the outside, and there is a domestic homicide and the children are killed,
there's a tendency to think that these men have just snapped. They have just lost it.
But that is not what happens at all. You do not go from being a psychologically healthy individual one day to killing your family the next.
These cases, they're not about a loss of control. If anything, they're a way of gaining control.
NARRATOR: This killer story begins in 1969. Phillip Austin was born that Valentine's Day in Northampton.
His mother worked in a care home. His father was a lorry driver. This was a very traditional nuclear family,
and he was an only child. NARRATOR: Phillip's aunt, Maureen Taylor, remembers that he was a reserved little boy.
MAUREEN TAYLOR: We always noticed that he was quiet. I mean, if he was with my son, he sort of opened up a bit,
but other than that, he was always quiet. He was one of those boys who always stood on the sidelines,
always watching, never initiating anything. NARRATOR: After finishing school, Phillip Austin went to work in a factory
before securing a job in the warehouse for a supermarket chain. He was living with his mum and dad while working
as a forklift truck driver. And then, in 1991, he met a girl called Claire Golden.
21-year-old Claire's close friend, Diane Beale, remembers how she loved a night out.
DIANE BEALE: We used to be on the dance floor, dancing together, and everybody was watching us
and we didn't care. She was such fun. She really was. NARRATOR: On the night in question,
Claire was out with another group of friends. But she was keen to tell Diane all about her evening.
She rang me the next day and said that she'd met somebody really nice. And she'd been sitting at a bar, and he was
at the opposite end of the bar. And he brought her rose. And then he took it round to her,
and that's how he introduced himself. She said he was really nice, and she liked him.
She was going to see him again. Claire was about three months younger than he was,
and she was different in every way. She was fun, she was gregarious, she was loyal,
she was happy about everything. Not someone you would expect to fall for this introverted, night-shift forklift truck
driver. NARRATOR: When Claire's mother and stepfather, Carol and Harry, met the new man in her life,
he was not what they were expecting. He wasn't her type. He was quiet. HARRY QUINN: I didn't dislike him or anything, you know.
I just thought he was a quiet guy who didn't have a lot of interests, you know. And I couldn't blame him.
He didn't share the same interest as me. NARRATOR: 22-year-old Austin's relationship with Claire
progressed rapidly. Claire very quickly became pregnant after they met. Phil moved in while she was pregnant.
But she was looking forward to it, and I was happy for her because she seemed happy.
She said she loved him. NARRATOR: News that there was going to be a new baby in the family was
met with excitement by the prospective grandparents. My husband used to say, I'm not old enough
to be a grandfather, and, I'm not going to be married to a grandmother. And we used to laugh about it.
NARRATOR: On the 19th of February 1992, the family welcomed Kieran Michael Austin into the world.
Harry and I went up to the hospital to see her. And he was just gorgeous. I went out and bought a video camera,
and I remember doing the video. I was trying to do this professional video. HARRY QUINN (VOICEOVER): Hello.
Hello. It's old Granny Quinn. Come in. Granny Quinn, yeah. [INAUDIBLE] Thank you very much.
NARRATOR: 23-year-old Phillip Austin seemed to rise to the responsibility of fatherhood.
He was very, very hands on. He used to feed him, change his nappy. He was really hands on.
NARRATOR: Whilst the couple began to settle into their roles as parents, it became evident that Austin's mother, Linda,
had very fixed ideas about how her new grandson should be brought up. Linda was going to be the one that was going to be in charge,
and that was it, you know. And I can understand why Claire got a bit upset about it,
shall I say. She thought, well, you know, why should she tell me what I can and can't do with my baby?
Sort of thing. NARRATOR: Relationships between Phillip Austin and his parents soon soured.
Even at little Kieran's christening, his mother couldn't hide her disdain. She had a real long face, and not long after that,
she stopped seeing them. And didn't speak to them. They had an argument. She tore up every photo she had of Kieran, and that was it.
There were one or two attempts at reconciliation, but Austin had made his mind up.
He didn't want anything more to do with his parents. I think this is, perhaps, a way
of Austin isolating his family from outside criticism. Because when that's missing, you're not called
to account for your behavior. NARRATOR: When Kieran was just a few months old, Claire fell pregnant again.
Jade Carol Austin was born on the 22nd of April 1993, just 14 months after her brother.
When Jade was born, oh my goodness. I mean, she was just everything. She was so pretty, and she was like a little doll.
NARRATOR: Of course, Harry was ready with his video camera as Kieran met his baby sister for the first time.
There she is. Hello. After Jade had come along, well, I could see a very happy family.
That's what I thought, anyway. NARRATOR: And to make their new family even more complete,
just three months after Jade's arrival, on the 17th of July, Claire and Phillip Austin were married.
It was a lovely little wedding, but only a small one. I did all the video, again.
That was a good day. And I enjoyed it. NARRATOR: Whilst Claire's family and friends turned up
in their droves to congratulate the happy couple, Austin had only two guests. We weren't invited to the wedding.
So none of the family were, because in the end, Phillip cut himself off from everybody.
His half of the church was almost deserted, whereas hers was absolutely packed. If ever there was a demonstration,
a perfect example of the strange nature of their relationship, this was it. The pictures show the perfect family,
but this would soon change. In just over two years, 24-year-old Phillip Austin had gone from living at home with his parents
to being a husband and father to two children. It's the most dramatic change that he's
ever encountered in his life. NARRATOR: As the honeymoon period came to an end, the young family settled in to their new life together.
At the outset, when Kieran was born, Austin did his best to be the perfect partner,
the perfect dad. But as time wore on, he found that more and more difficult to sustain.
And by the time Jade arrived, his sense of isolation was beginning to grow. NARRATOR: Having a toddler and a newborn was all consuming,
and the doting grandparents began to have some concerns about the way Austin was with his young son.
He was too rough with him. You know, he would have him lying and he'd be patting him on the chest and stuff, too hard
though. There was too much roughness and that, for me. And often Kieran would end up crying, you know.
Even when he was playing with Kieran, when you look at some of the family videos, even in play,
he could be quite heavy-handed and, you know, raise a few eyebrows. NARRATOR: The family began to see other things in Austin's
behavior that concerned them. After a time, he started doing strange things, like he bought a golf clubs.
But he didn't play golf. And he bought some weights for weight training, but he never used them.
He bought himself a pair of trainers, over 100 pounds. And 20 years or more ago, that was a lot of money.
NARRATOR: By contrast, Claire was a saver, always squirreling away money so that they
could afford something nice. It caused arguments between the couple. But if she did find out, that would be it.
He'd grab his bag and off he'd go with a few bits and pieces, and she wouldn't see or hear from him
for three or four days. She'd often ring the police and say, he's gone missing. And they'd find him, and bring him back.
That's how he got the nickname Gulliver, because he'd just go off on his travels.
So she'd ring me and say, oh, Gulliver's gone off again. And he'd come back knowing that she would have him
back because she didn't want her children to grow up in a single parent family home.
NARRATOR: As the years went on, Claire learned to deal with Austin's occasional absences.
Kieran and Jade grew to be great friends as well as siblings. Kieran was her protector.
I mean, they'd fight over different things like all brothers and sisters do, but no, he loved her.
He really did. Kieran. He was a grand kid. The questions. Oh, dear me. He would ask you a question, and you'd try and answer it.
And you were giving him an answer, but halfway through the answer, he had another one.
That's just what he was. He was just curiosity about everything. Jade, she was very quiet.
Quite shy. She had a most amazing smile that lit up her face, and she used to blush and go red a lot when he spoke to her.
And she had a little giggle. NARRATOR: When the children started going to school,
Claire found she had time to focus on other things. Claire got a job. She was able to buy her own car.
She had her own income. So she wasn't reliant on Phillip all the time for money.
She had her own social life. All of those sorts of things, I think in some respects, that
started to threaten Austin. Family was the one area of his life that he could dominate,
and that's where his efforts were focused. So the family became like a pressure cooker.
It absorbed a lot of stress and a lot of strain. And when you have an individual like Austin,
that family can be placed in quite a risky situation. Austin wanted to be the controlling
force in that family. And I don't mean that in a particularly aggressive or nasty way, but he wanted to be the alpha male
in that family. And I think he preferred it when Claire was dependent upon him. NARRATOR: The veneer of the perfect family unit
was beginning to wear thin. Fatherhood was not his natural position. He wasn't paternal.
He tried it out, so to speak, but knew it didn't suit him. And he found it very, very difficult to sustain.
Very often, in these situations, it's the children that reveal things. They let things slip.
And that kind of sparks suspicion in other family members who go, hang on a minute.
Things aren't quite right here. NARRATOR: The children began to open up to their grandparents
about some worrying incidents with their father. At one time, with both of them,
we found out they had been doing something horrible where he'd put his hands around the throat.
And Jade had told me. And she said, we don't like it when daddy does that, do we, Kieran?
I was horrified. You know, because that's something you just don't do, do you? You know, it's not even in fun.
And the way the children described it, it was not a joke when he did it. This is a really significant warning sign for me,
because this behavior is very common in domestic abuse situations. It's a way of a perpetrator showing a victim,
I could kill you if I wanted to. NARRATOR: When Claire found out what had been happening,
she was extremely upset, especially as she'd witnessed something herself which had
given her cause for concern. She said that one day, he hit Kieran really hard, hard enough to make him fall.
In front of Claire. And Claire said to him, if you ever do that again, we're finished.
Don't ever touch him like that again, because we won't be together anymore. I met her in Northampton, and I took her to a solicitor.
And I said, Claire, you've got to get rid of him and start again. I said, you can't live like this.
I said, you know that Harry and I will look after you. I said to her, you know, if you want to come
live here with the kids. But he obviously told her around. And she was here for a few days, but then she went back.
She went back to him. NARRATOR: Claire was very clear that this roughness with Kieran
had to stop. Phillip Austen agreed to go to counseling sessions for help. But that didn't last long.
This is something that he didn't stick to, because I honestly think that he didn't believe
he was doing anything wrong. He literally did this to take the pressure off, and to make it look like he was changing his behavior.
NARRATOR: Nevertheless, the experience seemed to have had a positive effect on Austin.
She told me that he was spending a bit more time with Kieran. They were cooking together, and going for walks,
and playing football. And it seemed to be working and making things easier in the house.
And she said, he's getting help, and I think it's working. I think everything's going to be all right.
NARRATOR: Things appeared to have turned a corner. 31-year-old Austin was making a real effort with the children,
and had stopped being so frivolous with money. In the summer of 2000, they went on holiday to Fuerteventura
with Claire's cousin. When they came back, we picked them up from the airport. They were full of the [INAUDIBLE]..
They'd enjoyed it so much. And they kept talking about going on another one. And Carol evidently said they cry, you know, come on.
You know you can't be going on another holiday straight away. So I said, they've got plenty money.
They've got some saved up in the bank. NARRATOR: The holiday seemed to have done
them all the world of good. Three weeks later, Carol spent the day with Claire and was pleased to hear that things between the couple
were going well. We used to go shopping on a Thursday. And that day, she told me that they were getting on better
than they'd ever done. NARRATOR: But despite Claire's optimism, the tide was about to turn.
On Sunday the 9th of July 2000, they were looking forward to a family treat. The whole family was supposed to have
been going to the cinema. And again, Austin was helping Kieran, I think it was, with some homework.
He got frustrated with Kieran. He'd ended up shouting at Kieran and getting angry.
He'd had a [INAUDIBLE] Kieran, and I think he went over the top. So probably Claire had a bit of a go at him about that.
And then he went in the bathroom and stayed there for most of the day. NARRATOR: They missed the film.
On the Sunday evening, I phoned up to say if they'd enjoyed it. And he answered the phone, something he never, ever did.
And he said Claire was upstairs. So he was very quiet. And the way he spoke, I thought, there's been an argument.
So I just said, tell Claire I'll phone her tomorrow. The rest of the week, I kept phoning,
and all I got was the answer phone. We thought, well, you know, they're maybe trying to patch things up.
I remember ringing them on the Wednesday, and I left a message and said, come on, Claire.
You know, what are you playing at? You know, what's up? Have we upset you? Why aren't you ringing us?
I didn't start to worry until towards the end of the week. And her cousin, who they'd been on the holiday with, called in.
And I said, have you heard from Claire? And she said, why? I said, well, I've been ringing and I can't get an answer.
So she said, well, don't tell her that I've told you, but apparently he's playing up again.
But she doesn't want you to know because she doesn't want you to worry. Which is why we didn't do any more.
NARRATOR: By Monday the 17th of July 2000, Kieran and Jade had missed a whole week of school.
Concerned by the children's absence, staff tried to contact the Austin family, but their calls went unanswered.
The phone rang, and it was the school secretary. I don't know whether it's a mother's intuition,
but alarm bells rang, and I just knew it was going to be something bad. I suppose I kept trusting.
They've gone away. I bet they've booked this holiday and gone away, and just not said anything to anyone.
And my heart was down here, and I didn't know why. NARRATOR: Carol and Harry went straight round
to the family's home. When they arrived, there was no sign of anybody. Carol started talking to a neighbor,
whilst Harry let himself inside using the spare key. For a brief second, his spirits lifted.
There was all letters and stuff behind the door, so I pushed on to get it open. And I thought, yeah.
They must have gone away. Yeah. Anyway, I got in the house, then this most awful smell hit me.
I went down the passageway towards the kitchen, and went into the kitchen. And I just saw Claire lying there, blood everywhere.
And she had marks on her wrists. It looked like she maybe cut her wrists. Because murder, you know, murder was not on my mind.
So I run to the front door, just as Carol's come in. I said, Carol, don't come in.
Claire's done something to herself. His face was just dreadful. I said, no, she hasn't.
I said, she wouldn't. I just went straight in. And I went into the kitchen and Claire laid on the floor.
And I just stood there. NARRATOR: Lying lifeless beside Claire was Dandy, one of the family's pet poodles.
As Carol took the scene in, her thoughts turned to her grandchildren. I said, oh my God, where are those children?
And I went straight up the stairs, Harry following me. And there was Kieran, laying across his bed.
Carol stayed with Kieran, and I remember shouting, not Jade. Please not Jade. And I ran into Jade's room and she was lying on the floor.
And I remember thinking, this bastard. How could you leave your daughter lying on the floor like this?
NARRATOR: The children had been strangled. You read books. You see things on television, you know.
What the police need. They need somewhere that is at least disturbed, so we didn't touch the body.
I mean, I wanted to pick up my granddaughter and put her on the bed. I wanted to do that more than anything,
but I knew that wasn't the right thing to do. NARRATOR: Carol and Harry's world had been shattered.
They felt certain that the only person who could possibly be responsible was Austin.
I know. I know. He wasn't there. Where was he? NARRATOR: Former detective inspector Andy Tennet remembers
visiting the family home. At first, everything looked normal, but then we noticed ornaments had been knocked over
and there was a slipper on the stairs. And then in the downstairs toilet, right in the corner,
was one of Claire's earrings. And then in the hallway, there was another one of her earrings.
So quite clearly, something had happened that caused that amount of disruption. Claire was somebody who had had self-defense training,
so when Austin did attack her, she put up a really significant fight. NARRATOR: The evidence showed that there'd
been a struggle which started upstairs in the couple's bedroom, and ended with Claire's lifeless body in the kitchen.
The only person absent from the house was Austin. But initially, we couldn't just say, well, he's our offender.
He could have been kidnapped. It could have been some sort of revenge killing. He could have been out the country.
We just didn't know. NARRATOR: As the police forensics team began a lengthy examination of the house,
Carol and Harry had to break the devastating news to family and friends. Later that night, Diane was woken by the phone ringing.
It was Carol. And I said, why are you living this time of the night? And she said, I have something horrible to tell you,
but I need to tell you now because I don't want you to wake up in the morning and see the news on the telly.
So I said, I don't understand. What are you talking about? So she said, Phil's killed them all.
And I said, what you mean? She said, they're gone. NARRATOR: The next day, the police
continued their investigation. There was no other sign at the scene of any ancillary crime,
if you like. You know, there was no evidence of drugs. There was no evidence of a break in, as an example.
So with that, as your other evidence begins to build up, then you begin to focus on the only person
missing from the house, that being Austin. NARRATOR: Once the forensics examination of the scene
had been completed, the search team was sent in. That was when we found the other dog that
had been killed and sort of hidden away next to a tumble dryer. And then in the bedroom, we found a pile of men's clothing.
Amongst that was a pair of beige cargo pants, and when those were unfolded onto some paper,
quite clearly, we could see blood spattering. NARRATOR: The forensic evidence on the cargo pants
suggested that the killer had been wearing them when Claire was attacked. Having discovered that Austin's car was missing,
the police put out an appeal for any sightings and received a call from a member of the public.
A car had been parked outside her house for about a week. So we had it lifted and taken to a forensic garage
where it was, again, examined right the way through for any evidence that might be
connected to the crime scene. NARRATOR: In the back of the car, investigators found the remains of a McDonald's breakfast,
a car magazine with several cars circled, and a carrier bag containing a rubber mallet.
The sort of thing you'd use, perhaps, for tapping in tent peg and the like. That had got a significant bend halfway down.
And the head certainly appeared that it had blood on it. And this became apparent that this
may well be a weapon that had been used in the attack on Claire. NARRATOR: It didn't take the police long
to discover that Austin had purchased one of the cars he'd circled as a getaway vehicle.
The evidence was mounting, and it all pointed in one direction. Austin becomes most definitely our suspect.
We're not treating him as a potential witness or another victim anymore. We definitely think he's our man.
NARRATOR: From witness statements and the evidence they discovered, investigators determined that the murders had
taken place on the 10th of July, a week before the bodies were found. This meant that Phillip Austin had now been on the run
for more than seven days. This is a man who has just killed his family, so it's very important that the police
track him down because only he knows what he's going to do next. It's vital that this person is apprehended.
NARRATOR: Investigators piecing together the evidence had managed to work out some of Austin's movements
on that fateful day. Early on Monday the 10th of July, he'd finished his night shift at the warehouse,
returned home, and had then taken the children to school. Now normally, he'd have driven home, talked to Claire,
gone to bed. Not this morning. He books an appointment at a massage parlor in Northampton.
He goes to that appointment, and he ends up having full sex with the lady that's
providing the massage for him. He then starts to head home. He goes into a local DIY store near where they live
and purchases a rubber mallet. He buys this mallet because it's something he's planning to use in the murders.
And I think this emphasizes how premeditated domestic homicides are. These men don't just snap or lose control.
They plan them over a long period of time. NARRATOR: From the evidence they discovered,
the police pieced together the moments that led up to Claire's death. Austin had returned home, armed with a mallet.
He found Claire upstairs. A fight starts in the bedroom, and it continues down the stairs.
Claire goes to the front door and opens it. Austin comes up and slams it, so that no one can help her.
He is trying to strangle her, but Claire, she gets away from him. She overpowers him and pushes him off, and runs back
through the house. But she ends up on the floor in the kitchen. And Austin's on her straight away,
and then begins a sustained violent attack. NARRATOR: Austin continued to strangle Claire and beat her
with the mallet, before stabbing her with such force that the knife broke. He then goes back to the kitchen drawer,
takes another knife, continues to stab her with that. And then retrieves her bra from the wash
basket that's in the kitchen, and again, throttles her with that. Any one of those assaults would have been enough to kill her.
After he's killed his wife, self-preservation kicks in. So he changes his clothes.
He goes to his wife's workplace and he tells her colleagues she's not going to be in for a while
because she's injured her back. Now the very fact that he's able to go through with this rather convincing performance
does show me how little remorse he has. NARRATOR: 31-year-old Phillip Austin had subjected his wife, the mother of his children,
to a lengthy and brutal attack. Later that day, he killed his son and daughter too.
The evidence proved the he'd planned the murders, and his getaway, in advance. Back in the incident room, investigators
had been following the latest information on Austin's whereabouts. Bank records revealed that he'd been using his debit card
whilst on a tour of the North of England, visiting the seaside and staying in bed and breakfasts.
Once you come to the realization of what you've done, most people would probably just give
themselves up, or kill them-- kill themselves. But they wouldn't go off on a holiday, which is what he did.
He was a quiet customer. He paid his bills on time. Might go to the pub for a drink in the evening.
But in effect, was keeping quite a low profile and wasn't really raising anybody's alarm bells.
NARRATOR: Despite following up on every lead, the police still hadn't caught up with Austin.
However, on the 20th of July, they had a breakthrough. A member of the public in the Lake District
spotted a man in a car acting suspiciously, and called the police. An officer responded, and found that the man
had cut his wrists. And in the conversation, very early on, when the officer says to him, well, come on.
You know, who are you? Austin says, well, you all know me. I'm the man who's killed his wife and family.
NARRATOR: It quickly became apparent that his self-inflicted injuries were not serious.
I think what he's trying to do here is place himself in the role of the victim. Look at me.
Poor me. NARRATOR: Austin was flown back down to Northampton to face questioning.
Potentially, still at that time, he could allege somebody else had committed the offenses.
Or he could allege, again, that, you know, he'd been kidnapped and abandoned up north.
Or he'd got amnesia, or anything. We didn't know. But actually, Austin gave us a full account almost from as
soon as we turned the tapes on. NARRATOR: Under police caution, the 31-year-old detailed the attack on his wife, explaining
that it started with a row. He says that at some point during that argument, the red mist comes down.
And he takes a swing at her, forgetting that he's got the mallet in his hand. And he catches her on the arm.
They then end up having a full-blown fight. NARRATOR: That version of events did not wash with Andy.
At what point does that red mist stop? Because during that assault, particularly once they're
in the kitchen, he's making decisions about where he's going to go, what he's going to use,
what implement he's going to pick up next. That doesn't sound like red mist to me.
That sounds like a man who's intent on murdering his wife. NARRATOR: The police already knew that Austin had purchased
a car before collecting eight-year-old Kieran and his seven-year-old sister Jade from school.
But Austin revealed he'd taken the children on a drive lasting seven hours. He goes over to the East Coast.
They buy fish and chips, and he buys the children some drinks. But even at that stage, he's lacing
their food and their drinks with a herbal sleep agent. And they only really go home when Austin's satisfied
that they are very sleepy. NARRATOR: Austin claimed that he returned home, having forgotten what he'd done earlier that day.
He recounted that he put the children to bed, and later that night, Jade woke up.
He's trying to make out that he had some kind of episode in which he killed his wife
and he killed the dogs. And it's only when his daughter asked him for a glass of water,
and he goes in the kitchen to get that that he sees the bodies and he remembers what he's done.
And then that triggers his later behavior. And I think that this is an absolute load of nonsense.
Austin remembers exactly what he's done, because he's following through a very carefully constructed plan.
He says, at that point, the only way forward he could say was to kill the children.
This isn't a red mist decision. This isn't, you know, a loss of temper. This is a reasoned decision that a man has made,
that he's going to murder both of his children. NARRATOR: Whilst he was retelling these horrific crimes
against his own family, Phillip Austin showed no sign of emotion or remorse. At the end of the interview, I recall that the officers
were saying they had asked him how he felt about what he'd done. And after a moment's thought, Austin
said, well, I'm not proud. And that was the sort of most we ever got out of him in terms of how he felt.
NARRATOR: Once in prison, Phillip Austin contacted his aunt and uncle for the first time
in more than eight years. He was allowed to phone somebody up. And the only person he phoned was Roger, my husband.
Didn't phone his mum and dad. Wouldn't have nothing to do with him. And we went to see him.
And asked him, you know, what the hell are you doing? You know, do you realise? And all he was worried about was things in the house
that belonged to him. And Roger slammed his fist on the table that we're sitting at, and he said,
you've got more to worry about than the things in the house. And I just walked out crying.
NARRATOR: Over the next four months, as the trial drew near, Austin's legal team
attempted to put forward a defense of not guilty on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The way it was summed up for me was they were trying to get a psychiatrist that would
say he was mad and not bad. And nobody would. So he went to trial as bad. NARRATOR: On the 22nd of March 2001
at Northhampton Crown Court, Phillip Austin changed his plea to guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison
with a minimum term of 15 years. The prosecution felt this was too lenient, and appealed.
David Blunkett, then Home Secretary, increased it to 20. But that equates, if you just count three lives, to just
over six years per life. Less than that, if you count the two dogs. That's not justice.
If he would have jumped out of the bushes and killed women who were jogging in the park,
we would never see this individual out in public again. I think the fact that he killed his family has
significantly reduced the length of the sentence that he received. Now, for me, for the same behavior
to be given a different level of severity depending on who the victims are is absolutely ludicrous.
NARRATOR: Austin was behind bars, but the impact of his actions had a devastating effect on Claire, Kieran and Jade's
family and friends. Facing the reality of it, and the reality of what your future is going to be like, or not like.
She thought the future was going to be this wonderful future with the kids involved, and all down the years, you know,
and the children, they would have an-- and suddenly it's gone. Snuffed out like putting a candle out.
NARRATOR: In the years since the murders, Carol and Harry have had help from a counselor.
She was absolutely wonderful. Really, really wonderful. Taught us how to cope with things.
How to deal with it. Like if you start to have really bad thoughts, replace them with a happy one.
And I always replace it with seeing Jade and Kieran standing at the window, waiting to go out with us for a day.
And they'd be jumping up and down and running out to the door to come running up the path to us.
NARRATOR: There is the possibility in the near future that Phillip Austin may be set free.
Those that knew Claire and the children hope they will never see that day. He's never said sorry.
He's never said why. He doesn't seem to have any remorse of any kind. He's a very, very dangerous man.
I think the level of violence that he used against Claire was completely unwarranted and unnecessary.
And he had plenty of opportunity not to kill the children. Does that make him evil?
Yes. He's a monster to be able to do what he's done, and still live with himself, calmly.
He went on a tour after slaughtering his family. You must have an empty soul, or no soul at all,
to be able to do that. NARRATOR: We may never know the real motivations behind Austin's actions.
What is certain is that his claims of a red mist moment cannot possibly be true.
His crimes were carefully planned. He purchased a mallet for the sole purpose of murdering
his wife, before calmly collecting his children from school, drugging and strangling them.
Making Phillip Austin one of the world's most evil killers. [MUSIC PLAYING]

A chilling profile of the father who took his two young children for fish and chips after murdering his wife, and then strangling them when they returned home.

An in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers, including Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, Cary Stayner, Leonard Lake, Dorothea Puente and more.

Brief Summary

Phillip Austin murdered his wife and children in a premeditated act, shocking the community and leaving a lasting impact on family and friends.

Key points

The Last Family Holiday. In June 2000, the Austins enjoyed what would be their last family holiday.
A Family's Tragic End. A month after their holiday, three members of the Austin family were found dead.
The Calm Before the Storm. Phillip Austin appeared calm while hiding a horrific truth about his family.
The Discovery. On July 17, 2000, the bodies of Claire and her children were discovered.
Warning Signs Ignored. The children revealed troubling incidents with their father, indicating deeper issues.
The Discovery. Claire is found lifeless in the kitchen, shocking Carol and Harry.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is a reasoned decision that a man has made.

Andy Tennet discusses Phillip Austin's calculated actions.

0:53WatchAug 19, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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