Speaker 1: In June two thousand, the Austin's enjoyed what was to
Speaker 1: be their last family holiday. A month after this home
Speaker 1: video was filmed, three members of the family were dead.
Speaker 1: On the tenth of July, Claire Austin didn't turn up
Speaker 1: for her shift as a carer. Her husband, Philip, visited
Speaker 1: her place of work.
Speaker 2: He'd told them that his wife wouldn't be in that
Speaker 2: day because she had back trouble. A man apparently at
Speaker 2: ease with himself and with the world.
Speaker 1: In reality, Claire was lying lifeless in a pool of
Speaker 1: blood on her kitchen floor, murdered by her own husband.
Speaker 1: But Philip Austin wasn't finished yet. Later that day, he
Speaker 1: calmly collected his children from school.
Speaker 3: This isn't a red miss decision. This isn't, you know,
Speaker 3: a loss of temper. This is a reason decision that
Speaker 3: a man has made that he's going to murder both.
Speaker 1: Of his children after taking them out for a fish
Speaker 1: and chip supper.
Speaker 4: He strangled them.
Speaker 5: He killed his entire family, He killed the family that
Speaker 5: he had created, and he did so in such a
Speaker 5: call and such a calm way.
Speaker 6: Into are half of my family out of our lives?
Speaker 1: Philip Austin had committed the unthinkable and undoubtedly become one
Speaker 1: of the world's most evil killers. In the summer of
Speaker 1: two thousand, the Austin family had disappeared and there was
Speaker 1: no answer.
Speaker 4: On the home phone.
Speaker 1: This was completely out of character, and as former Detective
Speaker 1: Inspector Anti Tenant remembers, local people were starting to worry.
Speaker 3: The children had not been at school for a week,
Speaker 3: and this was during term time and no application had
Speaker 3: been made to take the children at school. The community
Speaker 3: itself were a little bit anxious because they hadn't seen
Speaker 3: the family for a while. In fact, one neighbor had
Speaker 3: been out to Claire's car and had even taken the
Speaker 3: measure of marking the tires against the curb to see
Speaker 3: if the car moved overnight, but it didn't.
Speaker 1: The horrifying truth behind their absence would soon be revealed.
Speaker 1: On Monday, the seventeenth of July two thousand, the bodies
Speaker 1: of thirty one year old Claire Austin and her children,
Speaker 1: Kieran eight and Jade seven were discovered in the family home.
Speaker 1: The prime suspect was their thirty one year old husband
Speaker 1: and father, Philip Austin, who was nowhere to be found.
Speaker 2: The damage that he did was not just limited to
Speaker 2: the three souls who lost their lives, but has affected everyone, relatives, friends.
Speaker 4: It was a desperate thing to do.
Speaker 1: The quiet suburban street in the Standon's Barn area of
Speaker 1: Northampton had been the family's home for eight years. They'd
Speaker 1: appeared to neighbors to be an ordinary family. Now their
Speaker 1: home was a crime scene.
Speaker 5: When we have a family who appear to be normal
Speaker 5: from the outside and there is a domestic homicide and
Speaker 5: the children are killed, there's a tendency to think that
Speaker 5: these men have just snapped, they have.
Speaker 6: Just lost it.
Speaker 5: But that is not what happens at all. You do
Speaker 5: not go from being a psychologically healthy individual one day
Speaker 5: to killing your family the next. These cases, they're not
Speaker 5: about a loss of control. If anything, they're a way
Speaker 5: of gaining control.
Speaker 1: This killer's story begins in nineteen sixty nine. Philip Austin
Speaker 1: was born that Valentine's Day in Northampton.
Speaker 5: His mother worked in a care home. His father was
Speaker 5: a lorry driver. This was a very traditional, nuclear family
Speaker 5: and he was an only child.
Speaker 1: Philip's aunt, Mary Taylor, remembers that he was a reserve
Speaker 1: little boy.
Speaker 7: We always noticed that he was quiet. I mean, if
Speaker 7: he was with more son, he sort of opened up
Speaker 7: a bit, but other than that he was always quiet.
Speaker 2: He was one of those boys that alls stood on
Speaker 2: the sidelines, always watching, never initiating anything.
Speaker 1: After finishing school, Philip Austin went to work in a
Speaker 1: factory before securing a job in the warehouse for a
Speaker 1: supermarket chain.
Speaker 2: He was living with his mum and dad while working
Speaker 2: as a forklift truck driver, and then in nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: one he met a girl called Claire.
Speaker 4: Golden, twenty one year old.
Speaker 1: Claire's close friend Diane Beale remembers.
Speaker 4: How she loved a night out.
Speaker 8: We used to be on the dance floor dancing together,
Speaker 8: and everybody who's watched us, and we didn't care.
Speaker 6: She was such fun, she really was.
Speaker 1: On the night in question, Claire was out with another
Speaker 1: group of friends, but she was keen to tell Diane
Speaker 1: all about her evening.
Speaker 8: She Vangy the next day and said that she'd met
Speaker 8: somebody really nice, and she'd been sitting at a bar
Speaker 8: and he was at the opposite end of the bar
Speaker 8: and he brought her a rose, and then he took
Speaker 8: it round to her, and that's how I introduced himself.
Speaker 6: She said he was really nice and she liked him.
Speaker 8: She was going to see him again.
Speaker 2: Claire was about three months younger than he was, and
Speaker 2: she was different in every way. She was fun, she
Speaker 2: was gregarious, she was loyal, she was happy about everything.
Speaker 2: Not someone you would expect to fall for. This introverted
Speaker 2: night shift forklift truck driver.
Speaker 1: When Claire's mother and stepfather, Carol and Harry, met the
Speaker 1: new man in her life, he was not what they
Speaker 1: were expecting.
Speaker 6: He wasn't her type. He was quiet.
Speaker 9: I didn't dislay him anything, you know. I just thought
Speaker 9: he was a quiet guy that didn't have a lot
Speaker 9: of interests in none. I couldn't blame me, didn't share
Speaker 9: sim interested me.
Speaker 1: Twenty two year old Austin's relationship with Claire progressed rapidly.
Speaker 6: Claire very quickly became pregnant after they met.
Speaker 8: Phil moved in while she was pregnant. But she was
Speaker 8: looking forward to it, and I was happy for her
Speaker 8: because she seemed happy, said she loved him.
Speaker 1: News that there was going to be a new baby
Speaker 1: in the family was met with excitement by the prospective grandparents.
Speaker 6: My husband said, so, I'm not old enough to be
Speaker 6: a grandfather and I'm not going to be married to
Speaker 6: a grandmother, and we used to laugh about it.
Speaker 1: On the nineteenth of February nineteen ninety two, the family
Speaker 1: welcomed Kieran Michael Austin into the world.
Speaker 6: Harry and I went up to the hospital to see
Speaker 6: her and it was just gorgeous.
Speaker 9: I went out and bought a video camera and I
Speaker 9: remember doing the video, trying to do this professional video. Hello, Hello,
Speaker 9: it's old Ronnie Quinn.
Speaker 1: Twenty three year old Philip Austin seemed to rise to
Speaker 1: the responsibility of fatherhood.
Speaker 6: He was very, very hands on. He used to feed him,
Speaker 6: change his nappy. It was really hands on.
Speaker 1: Whilst the couple began to settle into their roles as parents,
Speaker 1: it became evident that Austin's mother, Linda had very fixed
Speaker 1: ideas about how her new grandson should be brought up.
Speaker 7: Linda was going to be the one that was going
Speaker 7: to be in charge and that was it, you know,
Speaker 7: and I can understand more. Claire got a bit upset
Speaker 7: about it. Shall she thought, well, you know, or should
Speaker 7: she tell me what I can and can't do with
Speaker 7: more baby sort of him.
Speaker 1: Relationships between Philip Austin and his parents soon soured. Even
Speaker 1: at little Kieran's christening, his mother couldn't hide her disdain.
Speaker 6: She had a real long face, and not long after
Speaker 6: that she stopped seeing them and didn't speak to them.
Speaker 6: They had an argument. She saw up every photo she
Speaker 6: had of Kieran, and that was it.
Speaker 2: There were one or two attempts at reconciliation, but Austin
Speaker 2: had made his mind up. He didn't want anything more
Speaker 2: to do with his parents.
Speaker 5: I think this is perhaps way of Austin isolating his
Speaker 5: family from outside criticism, because when that's missing, you're not
Speaker 5: called to account for your behavior.
Speaker 1: When Kieran was just a few months old, Claire felt
Speaker 1: pregnant again. Jade Carol Austin was born on the twenty
Speaker 1: second of April nineteen ninety three, just fourteen months after
Speaker 1: her brother.
Speaker 6: When Jade was born, oh my goodness, and she was
Speaker 6: just everything. She was so pretty and she was like
Speaker 6: a little doll.
Speaker 1: Of course, Harlie was ready with his video camera as
Speaker 1: Kieran met his baby's sister for the first time.
Speaker 8: Yeah, after I had come along, Well, I can say,
Speaker 8: very happy family. That's what I thought anyway, And.
Speaker 1: To make their new family even more complete. Just three
Speaker 1: months after Jade's arrival, on the seventeenth of July, Claire
Speaker 1: and Philip Austin were married.
Speaker 6: Here was a lovely little wedding, the earliest small one.
Speaker 9: I did all the video work. That was a good
Speaker 9: deal and enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: Whilst Claire's family and friends turned up in their droves
Speaker 1: to congratulate the happy couple.
Speaker 4: Austin had only two guests.
Speaker 7: We weren't invited to the wedding, so none of the
Speaker 7: family were because in the end Philip cut herself off
Speaker 7: from everybody.
Speaker 2: His half of the church was almost deserted, whereas hers
Speaker 2: was absolutely packed. If ever, there was a demonstration a
Speaker 2: perfect example of the strange nature of their relationship.
Speaker 9: This was it.
Speaker 1: The pictures showed the perfect family, but this would soon change.
Speaker 1: In just over two years, twenty four year old Philip
Speaker 1: Austin had gone from living at home with his parents
Speaker 1: to being a husband and father to two children.
Speaker 2: It's the most dramatic change that he's ever encountered in
Speaker 2: his life.
Speaker 1: As the honeymoon period came to an end, the young
Speaker 1: families settled in to their new life together.
Speaker 2: At the Outset, when Kieran was born Austin it is
Speaker 2: best to be the perfect partner, the perfect dad, but
Speaker 2: as time wore on, he found that more and more
Speaker 2: difficult to sustain, and by the time Jade arrived, his
Speaker 2: sense of isolation was beginning to grow.
Speaker 1: Having a toddler and a newborn was all consuming, and
Speaker 1: the doting grandparents began to have some concerns about the
Speaker 1: way Austin was with his young son.
Speaker 9: He was too rough with him, you know, you would
Speaker 9: have him ling and pat them on the chest and
Speaker 9: stuff too hard though. There's too much roughness in it
Speaker 9: for me, and often Kieran would end up crying, you.
Speaker 3: Know, even when he was playing with Kieran. When you
Speaker 3: look at some of the family videos, even in play,
Speaker 3: he could be quite heavy handed and you raise a
Speaker 3: few eyebrows.
Speaker 1: The family began to see other things in Austin's behavior
Speaker 1: that concerned them.
Speaker 9: After a time, he started doing strange things, like he
Speaker 9: bought golf clubs, but we didn't play golf. And he
Speaker 9: bought some weight for weight training, we never used them.
Speaker 6: He brought himself a pair of trainers over one hundred
Speaker 6: pounds twenty years more ago. That was a lot of money.
Speaker 1: By contrast, Claire was a saver. All was squirreling away
Speaker 1: money so that they could afford something nice. It caused
Speaker 1: arguments between the couple.
Speaker 6: If she did find out that would be it, he'd
Speaker 6: grab his bag and off he'd go with a few
Speaker 6: bits and pieces, and she wouldn't see or hear from
Speaker 6: him for three or four days. He'd often ring the
Speaker 6: police and say he's got missing, and they'd find him
Speaker 6: and bring him back. That's how he got the nickname
Speaker 6: Gulliver because he'd score off on his travels, so she'd
Speaker 6: bring me and say, oh, Gulliver's gone off again. He'd
Speaker 6: come back, knowing that she would have him back because
Speaker 6: she didn't want a children to grow up in a
Speaker 6: single parent family home.
Speaker 1: As the years went on, Claire learned to deal with
Speaker 1: Austin's occasional absences. Kieran and Jade grew to be great
Speaker 1: friends as well as siblings.
Speaker 6: Kieran was her protector, let fight different things, like all
Speaker 6: brothers and sisters do. But no, he loved her.
Speaker 9: Really did Karen. He was grown kid. Good questions, Oh darn.
Speaker 9: He'd ask you a question and you'd try and answer it,
Speaker 9: and you were giving them an answer, but halfway through
Speaker 9: the answer he had another one. That's just what he was.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 9: Fust curiosity about everything.
Speaker 8: Jade she was very quiet, quite shy. She had a
Speaker 8: most amazing smile that lit up her face, and she
Speaker 8: used to blush and go read a lot when he
Speaker 8: spoke to her, and she had a little giggle.
Speaker 1: When the children started going to school, Claire found she
Speaker 1: had time to focus on other things.
Speaker 3: Claire got a job, she was able to buy her
Speaker 3: own car, she had her own income so she wasn't
Speaker 3: reliant on Philip all the time for money. She had
Speaker 3: her own social life, all of those sorts of things.
Speaker 3: I think, in some respects that started to threaten Austin.
Speaker 5: Family was the one area of his life that he
Speaker 5: could dominate, and that's where his efforts were focused. So
Speaker 5: the family became like a pressure cooker. It absorbed a
Speaker 5: lot of stress and a lot of strain, and when
Speaker 5: you have an individual like Austin, that family can be
Speaker 5: placed in quite a risky situation.
Speaker 3: Austin wanted to be the controlling force in that family,
Speaker 3: and I don't mean that in a particularly aggressive or
Speaker 3: nasty way, but he wanted to be the alpha male
Speaker 3: in that family, and I think he preferred it when
Speaker 3: Claire was dependent upon him.
Speaker 1: The veneer of the afect family unit was beginning to
Speaker 1: wear thin.
Speaker 2: Fatherhood was not his natural position. He wasn't paternal. He
Speaker 2: tried it out, so to speak, but knew it didn't
Speaker 2: suit him and he found it very, very difficult to sustain.
Speaker 5: Very often in these situations, it's the children that reveal things.
Speaker 5: They let things slip, and that kind of sparks suspicion
Speaker 5: in other family members who go hang on a minute,
Speaker 5: things aren't quite right here.
Speaker 1: The children began to open up to their grandparents about
Speaker 1: some worrying incidents with their father.
Speaker 6: At one time, with both of them, we found out
Speaker 6: that he had been doing something horrible where he'd put
Speaker 6: his hands on the throat and Jade had told me
Speaker 6: she said, we don't like it when daddy does that.
Speaker 9: Do we care? And I was horrified. You know there's
Speaker 9: something he does don't do? Do you know? No even
Speaker 9: had fun and where the children described it, it was
Speaker 9: not a joke when he did it.
Speaker 5: This is a really significant warning sign for me because
Speaker 5: this behavior is very common in domestic abuse situations. It's
Speaker 5: a way of a perpetrator showing a victim. I could
Speaker 5: kill you if I wanted to.
Speaker 1: When Claire found out what had been happening, she was
Speaker 1: extremely upset, especially as she'd witnessed something herself which had
Speaker 1: given her cause for concern.
Speaker 8: She said that one day he hit care and really hard,
Speaker 8: hard enough to make him fall in front of Claire.
Speaker 8: And Claire said to him, if you ever do that again,
Speaker 8: we're finished. Don't ever touch him like that again, because
Speaker 8: we won't be together anymore.
Speaker 6: I'm not turn no sumpter. And I took her to
Speaker 6: a solicitor and I said, Claire, you've got to get
Speaker 6: rid of him and start again. So you can't live
Speaker 6: like this. So do you know that Harry and I
Speaker 6: will look after you.
Speaker 9: I said, you know if you want to come Olivia
Speaker 9: with the kids. But if she talked around, and she
Speaker 9: was here for a few days, but then she went back,
Speaker 9: she went back to him.
Speaker 1: Claire was very clear that this roughness with Kieran had
Speaker 1: to stop. Philip Austin agreed to go to counseling sessions
Speaker 1: for help, but that didn't last long.
Speaker 5: This was something that he didn't stick to because I
Speaker 5: honestly think that he didn't believe he was doing anything wrong.
Speaker 5: He literally did this to take the pressure off and
Speaker 5: to make it look like he was changing his behavior.
Speaker 1: Nevertheless, the experience seemed to have had a positive effect
Speaker 1: on Austin.
Speaker 8: She told me that he was spending a bit more
Speaker 8: time with Kieran. They were cooking together and going for
Speaker 8: a walk, Watson playing football, and it seemed to be
Speaker 8: working and making things easier in the house. And she said,
Speaker 8: it's getting help, and I think it's working. I think
Speaker 8: everything's going to be all right.
Speaker 1: Things appeared to have turned a corner. Thirty one year
Speaker 1: old Austin was making a real effort with the children
Speaker 1: and had stopped being so frivolous with money. In the
Speaker 1: summer of two thousands, they went on holiday to Fort
Speaker 1: a Ventura with Claire's cousin.
Speaker 6: When they came back, we picked them up from the airport.
Speaker 9: They were full of the whole and enjoyed it so
Speaker 9: much and kept talking about going on another one, and
Speaker 9: Carol evident said, declay, O, come on, you know you
Speaker 9: and can't be going another. Holy story. Got plenty of money,
Speaker 9: got some saved up in the bank.
Speaker 1: The holiday seemed to have done them all the World
Speaker 1: of Good. Three weeks later, Carol spent the day with
Speaker 1: and was pleased to hear that things between the couple
Speaker 1: were going well.
Speaker 6: We used to go shopping on a Thursday and she
Speaker 6: that day she told me that they were getting on
Speaker 6: better than had ever done.
Speaker 1: But despite Claire's optimism, the tide was about to turn.
Speaker 1: On Sunday, the ninth of July two thousands, they were
Speaker 1: looking forward to a family treat.
Speaker 3: The whole family was supposed to have been going to
Speaker 3: the cinema, and again Austin was helping Kieran.
Speaker 10: I think it was with some homework.
Speaker 3: He got frustrated with kier and he'd ended up shouting
Speaker 3: at Kieran and getting angry.
Speaker 9: He had a great card Kieran, and I think he
Speaker 9: went over the top, so probably Claire had a bit
Speaker 9: of a Gordon and then he went in the bathroom instead.
Speaker 9: Most of the.
Speaker 4: Day they missed the film.
Speaker 6: On the Sunday evening, I phoned up see if I'd
Speaker 6: enjoyed it, and he answered the phone, something he never
Speaker 6: ever did, and he said Claire was upstairs. He's very quiet,
Speaker 6: and the way he spoke, I thought there's been an argument.
Speaker 6: So I just said, I'll tell Claire our phone tomorrow.
Speaker 6: The rest of the week I kept phoning and all
Speaker 6: I got was the answer phone.
Speaker 9: We thought, well, you know, they'll maybe trying to patch
Speaker 9: things up. I remember ringing them on the Weddnesday and
Speaker 9: I left a message said, come on, Clay or what
Speaker 9: what are you playing at?
Speaker 10: You know?
Speaker 9: What? What's up?
Speaker 10: Have we upset you? Ah?
Speaker 9: Aren't you're ringing us?
Speaker 6: I didn't start to worry until towards the end of
Speaker 6: the week and her cousin, who had been on the
Speaker 6: holiday with called in and I said, have you heard
Speaker 6: from Claire? And she said why. I said, well, I've
Speaker 6: been ringing and I can't get an answer. So she said, well,
Speaker 6: don't tell her that I've told you. But apparently he's
Speaker 6: playing up again. But she doesn't want you to know
Speaker 6: because she doesn't want you to worry, which is why
Speaker 6: we didn't do anymore.
Speaker 1: By Monday, the seventeenth of July two thousand, Kieran and
Speaker 1: Jade had missed a whole week of school. Concerned by
Speaker 1: the children's absence, staff tried to contact the Austin family,
Speaker 1: but their calls went unanswered.
Speaker 6: The phone rang and it was the school secretary. I
Speaker 6: don't know whether it's mother's intuition, but alarm bells rang,
Speaker 6: and I just knew it was going to be something bad.
Speaker 9: I suppose I kept dressing they've gone away. They got
Speaker 9: about they've booked this holiday and gone away, and just
Speaker 9: said I didn't know anyone, and the heart was down here.
Speaker 9: I didn't know why.
Speaker 1: Carol and Harry went straight round to the family's home.
Speaker 1: When they arrived, there was no sign of anybody. Carol
Speaker 1: started talking to a neighbor, whilst Harry let himself inside
Speaker 1: using the spare key.
Speaker 4: For a brief second, his spirits lifted.
Speaker 9: All letters and stuff behind the doors were push hard
Speaker 9: to get it open, and I thought, yeah, that becus
Speaker 9: they've gone away. Yeah, anywhere I got in the houses,
Speaker 9: then this was awful to smell. Any I went down
Speaker 9: the passageway or kitchen. I went into the kitchen, saw
Speaker 9: clearline and blood everywhere, and she had marks on her wrists.
Speaker 9: It looked like she near be cut wrists. Because murder,
Speaker 9: you know, murders not in my mind. So I ran
Speaker 9: to the front door just as Carl was coming in.
Speaker 9: I said, Carol, don't come in. Chris done something new.
Speaker 10: Herself.
Speaker 6: His face was just dreadful. I said that she hasn't.
Speaker 6: I said she wouldn't.
Speaker 10: I just went.
Speaker 6: Straight in and I went into the kitchen and Claire
Speaker 6: laid on the floor.
Speaker 1: And I just stood there, lying lifeless beside Claire with Dandy,
Speaker 1: one of the family's pet poodles. As Carol took the
Speaker 1: scene in her thoughts turned to her grandchildren.
Speaker 6: I said, oh my god, we were those children. And
Speaker 6: I went straight up the stairs, Harry following me, and
Speaker 6: there was Kieren laying across his bed.
Speaker 9: Carol stood with Kieren, and I remember showing not Jaed,
Speaker 9: please not Chaed, and I run entery Jaede's room and
Speaker 9: shoes lying on the floor, and I remember thinking, he's bustard.
Speaker 9: How could you leave your daughter lying on the floor.
Speaker 4: Lays children had been strangled.
Speaker 9: You read books, you see things on television. You know
Speaker 9: what the police needed, The need somewhere that is at
Speaker 9: least disturbed. So we didn't touch the body. I mean,
Speaker 9: I wanted to peg up my granddaughter and put on
Speaker 9: the bed. I wanted to do that more or anything,
Speaker 9: but I knew there wasn't anything to do.
Speaker 1: Carol and Hardie's world had been shattered. They felt certain
Speaker 1: that the only person who could possibly be responsible was Austin.
Speaker 6: I know he wasn't there where where was the.
Speaker 1: Former detective inspector and the tenant remembers visiting the family home.
Speaker 3: First everything looked normal, but then we noticed ornaments had
Speaker 3: been knocked over, and there was a slipper on the stairs,
Speaker 3: and then in the downstairs toilet right in the corner
Speaker 3: was one of Claire's ear rings, and then in the
Speaker 3: hallway there was another one of her earrings. So quite
Speaker 3: clearly something had happened that had caused that amount of disruption.
Speaker 5: Claire was somebody who had had self defense training, so
Speaker 5: when Austin did attack her, she put up a really
Speaker 5: significant fight.
Speaker 1: The evidence showed that there'd been a struggle which started
Speaker 1: upstairs in the couple's bedroom and ended with Claire's lifeless
Speaker 1: body in the kitchen.
Speaker 3: The only person absent from the house was in But
Speaker 3: initially we couldn't just say, well, he's our offender. He
Speaker 3: could have been kidnapped, it could have been some sort
Speaker 3: of revenge killing. He could have been out of the country.
Speaker 3: We just didn't know.
Speaker 1: As the police forensics team began a lengthy examination of
Speaker 1: the house. Carol and Harry had to break the devastating
Speaker 1: news to family and friends. Later that night, Diane was
Speaker 1: woken by the phone ringing.
Speaker 6: It was Carol, and I said, why are you ringing this
Speaker 6: time of night?
Speaker 8: And she said, I have something horrible to tell you,
Speaker 8: but I need to tell you now because I don't
Speaker 8: want you to wake up in the morning and see
Speaker 8: the news on the telly. So I said, I don't understand.
Speaker 8: What are you talking about. So she said, Phils killed
Speaker 8: them all and I said what to me? She said,
Speaker 8: they're gone.
Speaker 1: The next day, the police continued their investigation.
Speaker 3: There was no other sign at the scene of any
Speaker 3: ancillary crime if you like, you know, there was no
Speaker 3: evidence of drugs. There was no evidence of a breaking
Speaker 3: as an example. So with that, as your other evidence
Speaker 3: begins to build up, then you began to focus on
Speaker 3: the only person missing from the house, that being Austin.
Speaker 1: Once the forensics examination of the scene had been completed,
Speaker 1: the search team was sent in.
Speaker 3: That was when we found the other dog that had
Speaker 3: been killed and sort of hidden away next to a
Speaker 3: tumble dryer. And then in the bedroom we found a
Speaker 3: pile of men's clothing amongst that was a pair of
Speaker 3: beige cargo pants, and when those were unfolded onto some paper,
Speaker 3: quite clearly we could see blood spattering.
Speaker 1: The forensic evidence on the cargo pans suggested that the
Speaker 1: killer had been wearing them when Claire was attacked. Having
Speaker 1: discovered that Austin's car was missing, the police put out
Speaker 1: an appeal for any sightings and received a call from
Speaker 1: a member of the public.
Speaker 3: A car had been part outside a house for about
Speaker 3: a week, so we had it lifted and taken to
Speaker 3: a forensic garage where it was again examined right the
Speaker 3: way through for any evidence that might be connected to
Speaker 3: the crime scene.
Speaker 1: In the back of the car, investigators found the remains
Speaker 1: of a McDonald's breakfast, a car magazine with several cars circled,
Speaker 1: and a carrier bag containing a rubber mallet the sort of.
Speaker 3: Thing you'd use pass for tapping in ten pecks and
Speaker 3: the like that had got a significant bend halfway down,
Speaker 3: and the head certainly appeared that it had blood on it,
Speaker 3: and this became apparent that this well be a weapon
Speaker 3: that had been used in the attack on Claire.
Speaker 1: It didn't take the police long to discover that Austin
Speaker 1: had purchased one of the cars he'd circled as a
Speaker 1: getaway vehicle. The evidence was mounting, and it all pointed
Speaker 1: in one direction.
Speaker 3: Austin becomes most definitely our suspect. We're not treating him
Speaker 3: as a potential witness or another victim anymore.
Speaker 10: We definitely think he's our man.
Speaker 1: From witness statements and the evidence they discovered, investigators determined
Speaker 1: that the murders had taken place on the tenth of July,
Speaker 1: a week before the bodies were found. This meant that
Speaker 1: Philip Austin had now been on the run for more
Speaker 1: than seven days.
Speaker 5: This is a man who has just killed his family,
Speaker 5: so it's very important that the police track him down
Speaker 5: because only he knows what he's going to do next.
Speaker 5: Is it's vital that this person is apprehended.
Speaker 1: Investigators piecing together the evidence had managed to work out
Speaker 1: some of Austin's movements on that fateful day. Early on Monday,
Speaker 1: the tenth of July, he'd finished his night shift at
Speaker 1: the warehouse, returned home, and had then taken the children
Speaker 1: to school.
Speaker 2: Now, normally he'd have driven home, talked to Claire, gone
Speaker 2: to bed.
Speaker 3: Not this morning, he books an appointment at a massage
Speaker 3: parlor in Northampton. He goes for that appointment and he
Speaker 3: ends up having full sex with the lady that's providing
Speaker 3: the massage for him. He then starts to head home.
Speaker 3: He goes into a local dry store near where they
Speaker 3: live and purchases a robot mallet.
Speaker 5: He buys this mallet because it's something he's planning to
Speaker 5: use in the murders. And I think this emphasize is
Speaker 5: how premeditated domestic homicides are. These men don't just snap
Speaker 5: or lose control. They plan over a long period of time.
Speaker 1: From the evidence they discovered, the police pieced together the
Speaker 1: moments that led up to Claire's death. Austin had returned
Speaker 1: home armed with the mallet. He found Claire upstairs.
Speaker 2: A fight starts in the bedroom and it continues down
Speaker 2: the stairs. Claire goes to the front door and opens it.
Speaker 2: Austin comes up and slams it so that no one
Speaker 2: can help her.
Speaker 3: He is trying to strangle her, but Claire actually gets
Speaker 3: away from him. She overpowers him and pushes him off
Speaker 3: and runs back through the house. But she ends upon
Speaker 3: the floor in the kitchen and Austin's on a straight
Speaker 3: away and then begins a sustained violent attack.
Speaker 1: Austin continued to strangle Claire and beat her with the
Speaker 1: mallet before stabbing her with such force that the knife broke.
Speaker 3: He then goes back to the kitchen drawer, takes another knife,
Speaker 3: continues to stabber with that, and then retrieves a bra
Speaker 3: from the washbasket that's in the kitchen, and again throttles
Speaker 3: her with that. Any one of those assaults would have
Speaker 3: been enough to kill her.
Speaker 5: After he's killed his wife, self preservation kicks in, so
Speaker 5: he changes his clothes. He goes to his wife's workplace,
Speaker 5: and he tells her colleagues she's not going to be
Speaker 5: in for a while because she's injured her back. Now,
Speaker 5: the very fact that he's able to go through with
Speaker 5: this rather convincing performance does show me how little remorse
Speaker 5: he has.
Speaker 1: Thirty one year old Philip Austin had subjected his wife,
Speaker 1: the mother of his children, to a lengthy and brutal attack.
Speaker 1: Later that day, he killed his son and daughter too.
Speaker 1: The evidence proved that he'd planned the murders and his
Speaker 1: getaway in advance. Back in the incident room, investigators had
Speaker 1: been following the latest information on Austin's whereabouts. Bank records
Speaker 1: revealed that he'd been using his debit card whilst on
Speaker 1: a tour of the north of England, visiting the seaside
Speaker 1: and staying in bed and breakfasts.
Speaker 9: Once you come to the realization of what you've done,
Speaker 9: probably just give themselves up or kill them kill themselves up,
Speaker 9: but wouldn't go off on holiday, which is what he did.
Speaker 3: He was a quiet customer, pay his bills on time,
Speaker 3: might go.
Speaker 10: To the pub for a drink in the evening, but in.
Speaker 3: Effect was keeping quite a low profile and wasn't really
Speaker 3: raising anybody's alarm bells.
Speaker 1: Despite following up on every lead, the police still hadn't
Speaker 1: caught up with Austin. However, on the twentieth of July,
Speaker 1: they had a breakthrough of the public in the Lake
Speaker 1: district spotted a man in a car acting suspiciously and
Speaker 1: called the police. An officer responded and found that the
Speaker 1: man had cut his wrists.
Speaker 3: And in the conversation very early on, when the officer
Speaker 3: says to him, well Coln, you know who are you,
Speaker 3: Austin says, well, you'll know me. I'm the man who's
Speaker 3: killed his wife and family.
Speaker 1: It quickly became apparent that his self inflicted injuries were
Speaker 1: not serious.
Speaker 5: I think what he's trying to do here is place
Speaker 5: himself in the role of the victim. Look at me,
Speaker 5: poor me.
Speaker 1: Austin has flown back down to Northampton to face questioning.
Speaker 3: Potentially still at that time, he could allege somebody else
Speaker 3: he'd committed the offenses, or he could allege again that,
Speaker 3: you know, he'd been kidnapped and abandoned up north or
Speaker 3: he'd got amnesia or anything.
Speaker 10: We didn't know.
Speaker 3: But actually Austin gave us a full account almost from
Speaker 3: as soon as he turned the tapes on.
Speaker 1: Under police caution. The thirty one year old detailed the
Speaker 1: attack on his wife, explaining that it started with a row.
Speaker 3: He says that at some point during that argument, the
Speaker 3: red Miss comes down and he takes a swing adder
Speaker 3: forgetting that he's got the mallet in his hand, and
Speaker 3: he catches her on the arm. They then end up
Speaker 3: having a full blown fight.
Speaker 4: That version of events did not wash with Andy.
Speaker 3: At what point does that red miss stop Because during
Speaker 3: that assault, particularly once they're in the kitchen, he's making
Speaker 3: decisions about where he's going to go.
Speaker 10: What he's going to use, what inclement he's going to
Speaker 10: pick up next.
Speaker 3: That doesn't sound like red Myss to me. That sounds
Speaker 3: like a man who's intent on murdering his wife.
Speaker 1: The police already knew that Austin had purchased a car
Speaker 1: before collecting eight year old Kieran and his seven year
Speaker 1: old sister Jade from Ghoul, but Austin revealed he'd taken
Speaker 1: the children on a drive lasting seven hours.
Speaker 10: He goes over to the East coast.
Speaker 3: They buy fish and chips, and he buys the children
Speaker 3: some drinks, but even at that stage, he's lacing their
Speaker 3: food and their drinks with a herbal sleep agent, and
Speaker 3: they only really go home when Austin satisfied that they
Speaker 3: are very sleepy.
Speaker 1: Austin claimed that he returned home having forgotten what he'd
Speaker 1: done earlier that day. He recounted that he put the
Speaker 1: children to bed, and later that night Jade woke up.
Speaker 5: He's trying to make out that he had some kind
Speaker 5: of episode in which he killed his wife and he
Speaker 5: killed the dogs. And it's only when his daughter asked
Speaker 5: him for a glass of water and he goes in
Speaker 5: the kitchen to get that that he sees the bodies
Speaker 5: and he remembers what he's done, and then that triggers
Speaker 5: his later behavior, and I think this is an absolute
Speaker 5: load of nonsense. Austin remembers exact exactly what he's done
Speaker 5: because he's following through a very carefully constructive plan.
Speaker 3: He says, at that point the only way forward he
Speaker 3: could see was to kill the children. This isn't a
Speaker 3: red miss decision. This isn't, you know, a loss of temper.
Speaker 3: This is a reason decision that a man has made
Speaker 3: that he's going to murder both of his children.
Speaker 1: Whilst he was retelling these horrific crimes against his own family,
Speaker 1: Philip Austin showed no sign of emotion or remorse.
Speaker 10: The end of the interview. I recall that the officers.
Speaker 3: Were saying they'd asked him how he felt about what
Speaker 3: he'd done, and after a moment's thought, Austin said, well,
Speaker 3: I'm not proud, and that was the sort of most
Speaker 3: we ever got out of him in terms of how
Speaker 3: he felt.
Speaker 1: Once in prison, Philip Austin contacted his aunts and uncle
Speaker 1: for the first time in more than eight years.
Speaker 7: He was allowed to phone somebody up, and the only
Speaker 7: person he phoned was Roger, my husband, didn't phone his
Speaker 7: mum and dad wouldn't have nothing to do with him,
Speaker 7: and we went to see him and asked him, you know,
Speaker 7: what the hell are you doing? You know, do you realize?
Speaker 7: And all he was worried about was things in the
Speaker 7: house that belonged to him, and Roger slammed his fist
Speaker 7: on the table that was sitting at and he said,
Speaker 7: You've got more to worry about than the things in
Speaker 7: the house, and I've just got walked out crying.
Speaker 1: Over the next four months, as the trial drew near,
Speaker 1: Austin's legal team attempted to put forward a defense of
Speaker 1: not guilty on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Speaker 3: The way it was summed up for me was they
Speaker 3: were trying to get a psychiatrist that would say he
Speaker 3: was mad and not bad.
Speaker 10: Nobody would, so he went to trial as bad.
Speaker 1: On the twenty second of March two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: at Northampton Crown Court, Philip Austin changed his plea to guilty.
Speaker 1: He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum
Speaker 1: term of fifteen years. The prosecution felt this was too
Speaker 1: lenient and appealed.
Speaker 6: David Blunkett, then Home Secretary, increased it to twenty. But
Speaker 6: that equates if you just count three lives to just
Speaker 6: over six years her life less than that if you
Speaker 6: count the two dogs. That's not justice.
Speaker 5: If he would have jumped out of the bushes and
Speaker 5: killed women who were jogging the park, we would never
Speaker 5: see this individual out in public again. I think the
Speaker 5: fact that he killed his family has significantly reduced the
Speaker 5: length of the sentence that he received. Now for me
Speaker 5: for the same behavior to be given a different level
Speaker 5: of sar verity depending on who the victims are is
Speaker 5: absolutely ludicrous.
Speaker 1: Austin was behind bars, but the impact of his actions
Speaker 1: had a devastating effect on Claire, Kiren and Jade's family
Speaker 1: and friends.
Speaker 9: Facing the reality of it and the reality of what
Speaker 9: your future is going to be like or not like,
Speaker 9: because you thought your future was going to be this
Speaker 9: wonderful future with the kids involved and all down the years,
Speaker 9: you know, and the children there would have and and
Speaker 9: suddenly it's gone snuffed out like put a candle out.
Speaker 1: In the years since the murders, Carol and Harry have
Speaker 1: had help from a counselor.
Speaker 6: She was absolutely wonderful, really really wonderful. Taught us how
Speaker 6: to cope with things how to deal with it, Like
Speaker 6: if you start to have really bad thoughts, replace them
Speaker 6: with a happy one. And I always replaced it with
Speaker 6: seeing Jade and kier and standing at the window waiting
Speaker 6: to go out with us for a day, and they'd
Speaker 6: be jumping up and down and running out to the
Speaker 6: door to and running up the path to us.
Speaker 1: There is the possibility in the near future that Philip
Speaker 1: Austin may be set free those that new Claire and
Speaker 1: the children hope they will never see that day.
Speaker 8: He's never said sorry, he's never said why. It doesn't
Speaker 8: seem to have any remorse of any kind. He's very,
Speaker 8: very dangerous man.
Speaker 3: I think the level of violence that he used against
Speaker 3: Claire was completely unwarranted and unnecessary, and he had plenty
Speaker 3: of opportunity not to kill the children.
Speaker 10: Does that make him evil?
Speaker 9: Yes, here's a monster to be able to do what
Speaker 9: he'd done and still live with himself calmly. He went
Speaker 9: on a tour after slaughtering his family. You must have
Speaker 9: an empty soul, no soul at all, to be in that.
Speaker 1: We may never know the real motivations behind Austin's actions.
Speaker 1: What is certain is that his claims of a red
Speaker 1: miss moment cannot possibly be true. His crimes were carefully planned.
Speaker 1: He purchased a mallard for the sole purpose of murdering
Speaker 1: his wife, before calmly collecting his children from school, drugging
Speaker 1: and strangling them, making Philip Austin one of the world's
Speaker 1: most evil killers.