Accused told operator ‘I have murdered my entire family’ after stabbings

A FATHER told a police operator, “I have murdered my entire family”, after stabbing his two children, their mother and her brother to death, a court heard yesterday.

Former taxi driver Neil Crampton, 36, knifed 12-year-old Abigail, Steven, aged five, their mother Olufunke Sobo, 36, and her brother Yemi Sobo, 41, in November 2006.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how he told police about the killings at the Sobo family home in Hawthorn Gardens, Kenton, Newcastle, in a 999 call.

Crampton, of Huntley Crescent, Winlaton, Gateshead, denies four counts of murder.

Paul Sloan QC, prosecuting, said police were met by a scene which the defendant later described as “absolute carnage”.

“Nothing could have prepared them for what they were to discover upon gaining access to the house,” Mr Sloan said. “As the defendant himself was later to describe it when interviewed by the police, it was a scene of ‘absolute carnage’.”

Mr Sobo’s body was found in the hallway. He had suffered 67 injuries, mostly to the head and neck, but some to his hands, indicating he had tried to grab the knife.

In another doorway was Ms Sobo’s body. She had suffered 108 injuries — 67 stab wounds and 41 other knife injuries — again mostly to the head and neck and she also had hand injuries, the court heard.

The children’s bodies were discovered upstairs.

In the large front bedroom, partly covered by a duvet, was the body of Abigail Crampton. She suffered a total of 105 knife injuries, many to the head and neck.

Her little brother was found on the floor in his bunk bedroom. He had a total of 25 knife injuries, but there were no defence wounds.

Armed police were waiting for Crampton when he arrived at the house where he lived with his parents.

Mr Sloan said: “In due course, he was interviewed and admitted each one of the four killings.”

Mr Sloan said Neil Crampton was an extremely volatile Jekyll and Hyde-type character who was desperate to rebuild his relationship with his estranged partner Funke. His attempts to rekindle their romance ended in “an unmitigated disaster”, however, and he was made to feel unwelcome by Funke’s mother, Tunde, he said.

The couple maintained an “on-off relationship” which continued even after Crampton admitted to beginning an affair with a prostitute when on holiday in Thailand. But Funke at her mother’s prompting had resolved to end the relationship and had moved with the children back to Kenton, the court heard.

Mr Sloan told the jury Crampton’s legal team might advance a claim of diminished responsibility for their client arguing that at the time of each of the murders he was suffering an abnormality of mind.

But he said: “The prosecution case is that the defence of diminished responsibility does not apply to any of these four charges.”

Crampton tried to kill himself after hacking his family to death, the court heard.

“He had cut himself and made some sort of attempt to hang himself. Moreover, he was subsequently to claim that he had tried, by various other means, to take his own life,” Mr Sloan said.

The trial continues.