'I AM SO PROUD OF ALL MY GIRLS'

BBC racing commentator John Hunt pays tribute to his wife and two daughters and says the 'screams of hell' await 'cowardly' killer Clifford

- By Paul Jeeves Crime Editor

CROSSBOW killer Kyle Clifford was told “the screams of hell” await him as he was sentenced yesterday to die behind bars.

BBC racing commentator John Hunt said of his murdered wife Carol and daughters Louise and Hannah, “I am so proud of all my girls” adding: "Unlike you, Kyle, at every step of their lives, they made the correct choices to improve themselves as people.

"Louise, she enjoyed more success and fulfilment in one morning than you achieved in your entire miserable life." Mr Hunt added in his victim impact statement: "The screams of hell, Kyle. I can hear them faintly now. They're going to roll the red carpet out for you.' In a "final insult" to the Hunt family, Clifford refused to attend Cambridge Crown Court where he was handed three whole-life sentences for his rampage last July.

The failed former soldier tied up ex-girlfriend Louise, 25, and held her hostage for hours at her family home in Bushey, Herts, raping her in a "sexual act of spite".

He then fatally shot her in the back with a crossbow as he "could not even look her in the face" as she lay bound and gagged near the bloodied body of her mother Carol, who Clifford had stabbed to death with a 10in knife.

Clifford shot Louise as her sister Hannah arrived home from work.

Before he killed her too, Hannah managed to raise the alarm via a message to her boyfriend Alex Klein in which she urged him to call the police.

Mr Hunt said that in her final act "my Hansie" had saved his life, preventing Clifford from laying in wait to kill him too.

Mr Justice Joel Bennathan told the court that Clifford, 26, would be jailed for the rest of his life. Mr Hunt, his surviving daughter Amy and a dozen family and friends wept and hugged as the sentence was passed.

Jealous