CCTV shows crossbow murderer Kyle Clifford deceiving his way into ex’s home

Chilling audio from a doorbell camera captured the moment crossbow killer Kyle Clifford tricked his way into his ex-girlfriend’s home to carry out his triple murder.

Clifford, 26, is said to have raped Louise Hunt, 25, while holding her captive for hours at her home in Bushey, Hertfordshire, last July.

He had already stabbed her mum Carol, 61, to death with a butcher’s knife by the time he bound and gagged her when as she stepped inside from the garden pod where she ran a dog grooming business.

Louise was eventually shot dead with the crossbow, which Clifford also used to murder her sister Hannah, 28, when she arrived home from work, Cambridge Crown Court has heard.

Today, jurors were taken through various pieces of footage capturing Clifford’s movements in the lead-up to the triple killing.

One clip, taken from a camera at the front of the home in Ashlyn Close shows him dressed all in black, wearing a rucksack and holding a white plastic bag chatting to Mrs Hunt.

Carol, who was married to BBC racing commentator John Hunt, answers the door and Clifford says he is ‘just dropping off some of Louise’s stuff’.

She asks Clifford how he is, and he replies: ‘I’m good, thank you. What’s wrong? You look like…’

Carol responds: ‘I’ve seen a ghost.’

Prosecutors told Cambridge Crown Court that Clifford deceived Mrs Hunt to gain access to the address and then took a knife from his backpack to kill her.

In audio, Clifford says he has got them a card ‘to say bye’ and has brought items to return.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said: ‘As the defendant went into the door, he took the backpack from his back and he spoke of the card.’

Jurors have heard Clifford also had a butcher’s knife in the bag, which he pulled out and used in a ‘brutal attack on Carol, with screams and banging sounds heard coming from the property.

Further CCTV footage shows him leaving the address – to collect the crossbow from his car – returning with it hidden under a sheet and letting himself back into the house with a key.

Jurors were told he waited at the house with the crossbow to kill Louise and Hannah when they returned home from work.

Ms Morgan said that in a 999 call to police, Hannah Hunt said: ‘My sister’s ex-boyfriend has come in and he shot us.’

She said that when asked who had been shot, Hannah Hunt said ‘my mum and my sister and me’.

Detective Constable Alex Leckie agreed with the prosecutor that Hannah Hunt then tried to ‘provide police with details of the address and what was going on inside the address’.

The defendant previously admitted three counts of murder, one of false imprisonment against Louise Hunt, and two counts of possession of offensive weapons – the crossbow and the knife.

Clifford, of Enfield, north London, denies a single charge of rape, against Louise Hunt.

Mr Hunt watched proceedings from the public gallery on Wednesday, and a woman left the public gallery in tears after the footage at the doorstep of the family home was played.

A second woman, who sat beside Mr Hunt in the public gallery, held her head in her hands and wept after audio of the ‘whooshing’ noise of a crossbow bolt being fired at the family home was played.

Jurors were earlier shown footage of Clifford at a garden centre in Enfield on the morning of the day of the murders.

Ms Leckie said Clifford was at the garden centre with his mother, father and niece.

She said Clifford received an incoming call, which went to voicemail, from a woman ‘the defendant was in another relationship with at that time’.

Jurors were also shown footage of Clifford at a gym on July 5.

Clifford, who is being tried in his absence, is alleged to have become ‘enraged’ when Louise Hunt ended their 18-month relationship before he ‘carefully planned and executed’ the murders.

The prosecutor asked forensic scientist Martin Whittaker if the findings of intimate samples taken from Louise Hunt after her death on July 9 last year could be explained by sexual intercourse taking place 16 days prior, on June 23.

Mr Whittaker said that in his opinion the ‘presence and quantity’ of DNA in the intimate sample ‘cannot reasonably be explained by Kyle Clifford only having had’ sex with Louise Hunt on June 23.

The scientist said that the findings ‘can be explained if when (Clifford) was in her company on the day of her death Kyle Clifford had … intercourse with Louise Hunt’.

Prosecutors allege Clifford raped Louise Hunt on the day of her death, on July 9.

Phil Bradley KC, for Clifford, said the defence case is that Clifford and Louise Hunt last had sexual intercourse on June 23.

The trial continues.

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