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Perry
SAMUEL
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Parricide
- "To take revenge for affair"
Number of victims:2
Date of murders: November 5,
2006
Date of arrest:
Same day (surrenders)
Date of birth:1971
Victims profile:His daughter Caitlin,
5, and his son, Aiden,
3
Method of murder:Suffocation
Location: Bodelwyddan,
Denbighshire,
Wales, United Kingdom
Status: Sentenced to life in prison (minimum 35 years)
on March 8, 2007
A father has been sentenced to life and
ordered to serve a minimum of 35 years after admitting murdering his
two young children in their bath.
Perry Samuel, 35, who has manic depression, smothered
Aidan, three, and Caitlin, five, at their home in Bodelwyddan,
Denbighshire.
Judge John Rogers said he believed Samuel had been
motivated by malice against the children's mother.
But Samuel is said to be the only one who knows
exactly what happened.
A review of the way council and health authorities
dealt with Samuel has begun and is expected to report back later in the
year.
Sentencing Samuel at Mold Crown Court, Judge John
Rogers said: "You took them one after the other and put your hand over
the mouth and the nose, disregarding their desperate struggle to get air
into their lungs. You left your hands there until life itself had left
their bodies."
"You abused the most important position of trust,
that of a father for his children.
"I accept you have a mental history which may provide
some explanation for your actions although I believe your motivation was
simply malice towards these children's mother."
The court heard about the relationship between the
children's mother Sarah Graham and Samuel, and were told that at one
point they had split up, with Samuel becoming depressed about that.
But at the time of the murders, they had reunited -
although Samuel had looked at text messages on Ms Graham's mobile phone
and might have suspected she was seeing a male friend.
Defence counsel Stephen Riordan QC said that the
truth of what happened "remains in his (Samuel's) head"
Samuel had told police the children had been having a
bath and he remembered smoking a cigarette on the doorstep, hearing
playful splashing upstairs.
Mr Riordan said he told police that then "everything
went wacko."
"He can remember kneeling alongside the bath and
falling against the wall. His jumper was wet and he took it off. The
children were in the water," the barrister added.
Mr Riordan explained that Samuel was too scared to
call police straight away. Post mortem examinations suggested the time
of death at some time between 2000 GMT and 2130 GMT.
He made a rambling call to the police shortly before
11pm that night.
The children's mother had been at a pop concert in
Manchester with friends and had left her partner to care for the
children.
In a statement issued after sentencing, Ms Graham
said no prison sentence would be long enough to excuse taking away the
lives of her "beautiful babies" or to justify the "living nightmare that
this man has put me and my family through".
She told the court she wished she could go to sleep
and not wake.
Ms Graham said she suffered regular nightmares and
her pain would never go.
"Even though we didn't have the perfect relationship,
I thought that he loved me and the children and I never ever thought
that he would kill his own children," she said.
"My biggest fear throughout this whole nightmare is
that the children suffered.
"The police have told me as much as they know, but
the only person who can say exactly what happened in my home on the
evening of Bonfire Night last year is Perry."
Father who killed his children 'to avenge his
lover'
By Liz Hull - DailyMail.co.uk
March 9, 2007
A Father suffocated his two young children as revenge
on their mother who he feared was cheating on him, a court has heard.
Perry Samuel, 35, held his hands over the mouths and
noses of his five-year-old daughter Caitlin and her brother, Aiden,
three, until they lost consciousness and died.
In a vain attempt to make their murders look like an
accident, Samuel then dumped their naked bodies in the bath and rang
999, telling police: "There's a problem with the children."
Shortly afterwards, officers arrested Samuel at the
terrace home he shared with the children's mother, 23-year-old Sarah
Graham, who was away at a pop concert at the time.
He was questioned for three days but repeatedly
refused to explain why he had murdered the children.
However, it emerged yesterday that in the days before
their deaths, Samuel, who suffered from manic depression, had feared his
partner of seven years was having an affair. He admitted checking Miss
Graham's mobile phone and finding a text message from another man,
arranging to meet her at the concert, 70 miles away in Manchester, on
the night of the killings.
Yesterday, Judge John Rogers, QC, jailed Samuel for
life after he pleaded guilty to two counts of murder. The judge
recommended he serve at least 35 years, meaning he would not be eligible
for parole until he was 70.
"You suffocated them one after the other by placing
your hand over their mouths and noses, disregarding the desperate
strugglings each of them must have gone through in an attempt to take
air into their lungs," Judge Rogers said.
"You held your hands there until life itself left
their bodies. They were quite defenceless and you abused the most
important position of trust, that of a father for his children.
"Your motivation was simply malice, malice towards
the children's mother." Mold Crown Court in
North Wales heard that, on the night of the murders,
Bonfire Night last year, Miss Graham had left the youngsters in the care
of Samuel while she went with friends to watch the pop star Pink in
concert.
Gerrard Elias, QC, prosecuting, said the day had been
like any other, with Samuel taking Caitlin and Aiden to a fast-food
restaurant for their dinner, before watching a neighbour's firework
display and running them a bath.
But shortly after 11pm police received an emergency
call from Samuel. When officers attended the couple's three-bedroom
terrace, in the close-knit village of Bodelwyddan, North Wales, they
"made the grimmest of discoveries".
Samuel, described by friends and family as a "model
father", was arrested but failed to explain how the children died.
However, post-mortem examinations revealed they had
been suffocated by his hand, some time between 8pm and 9.30pm, and
their bodies placed in the bath shortly afterwards.
The court heard that Samuel had been hospitalised
with depression after trying to commit suicide when he and Miss Graham
temporarily separated in February last year. During their separation
Miss Graham began seeing another man, but was reunited with Samuel five
months later, in July. Samuel told police he was concerned that Miss
Graham had been spending more time socialising with friends and going
out to nightclubs, while he remained at home with the children.
He said Miss Graham had complained that she was "sick
of living with a dithering old man".
In the days before the murders Samuel also checked
Miss Graham's mobile phone and, although he later denied killing the
children as an act of revenge, he admitted finding a text message from
another man arranging to meet her at the concert.
Mr Elias added: "Sarah Graham admitted the defendant
had seen a text message which was from another man and following that
his attitude towards her became more aggressive. The Crown suggests that
the motive for the attack must have been this."
In a statement, Miss Graham said: "I feel so much
pain and can't see a future. I wish I could go to sleep and not wake.
Perry had destroyed my life.
"No prison sentence will ever be long enough to
excuse taking away the lives of my beautiful babies."
The court heard that Samuel, who has one previous
conviction for burglary, had been treated for manic depression since he
was 27.
Although he had seen a psychiatrist only a month
before the murders, experts concluded that he was of sound mind and not
suffering a depressive episode when he killed his children.
Normal day which ended in murder
BBC News
Friday, 9 March 2007
Only Perry Samuel knows exactly what happened on
Bonfire Night 2006 when he murdered his young son and daughter.
It had been at the end of an otherwise unremarkable
family day.
The apparently dutiful father was looking after his
children while their mother went to a concert in Manchester and stayed
over with friends.
After taking Caitlin, five, and Aidan, three, to
McDonald's for tea, he brought them home, watched fireworks with them
and gave his children a bath.
But he later rang the police, saying: "There's a
problem with the children."
The problem was, he had suffocated them.
The unemployed shop assistant has admitted
responsibility for their deaths, but despite being questioned for days
by police, continues to refuse to say how, why, or even exactly when he
killed them.
"On the face it, it had been a normal day," the
police said later.
The police have called on Samuel to "do the right
thing" and explain what happened that night, so the childrens' mother,
Sarah, 23, is no longer tormented by endlessly imagining, and re-imagining,
what might have happened.
The couple were said to have had difficulties in
their relationship, and had been separated, but at the time he turned to
murder, Samuel and Sarah Graham were again living together in
Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire.
The first the children's mother knew about her
partner's dreadful actions was when she took a phone call at her hotel
from the police, who then collected her to reveal the full horror of
what her partner had done.
"This has been a harrowing case that has touched the
hearts of all those involved in it," senior investigating officer Det
Supt John Chapman was to tell journalists some months later.
Samuel had a history of mental illness. He had been
diagnosed with bipolar disorder, or manic depression as it is also known.
Mold Crown Court heard he had been receiving
different forms of mental health care since March 1998, when he was
admitted to a psychiatric ward for a month.
The court was told he had been sectioned in January
1999 and arrested in November 2000 for an incident in which he admitted
burglary. A charge of arson was ordered to lie on file.
In June 2004, he suffered a further manic episode and
in, March 2006, was said to be in low mood during his separation from Ms
Graham.
But contrary to some reports, he had not been in
hospital immediately before the killings.
He has not used his mental health as an excuse for
what he did - he pleaded guilty to murder, not manslaughter on the
grounds of diminished responsibility.
His defence barrister Stephen Riordan QC said: "It's
perfectly clear that this is a man who since 1998 has been in and out of
psychiatric hospitals.
"He has been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, which
is a serious mental illness treated by prescription drugs and which is
more generally known as manic depression."
Stunned
He told the court a psychiatric nurse who dealt with
Samuel while he was on remand in Liverpool said the defendant told him
he drowned Aidan in the bath and when his sister became distressed he
did the same to her.
Mr Riordan said experts believed that when Samuel
underwent his next episode of manic depression, he was likely to "unburden
himself but not before then".
A "serious case review" involving all the authorities
and agencies involved in the case, and with the family over recent
times, has begun, with the result expected later in 2007.
But whatever the findings, the fact remains that only
Samuel holds all the answers to what happened the evening he took it
upon himself to end the short lives of his two children.
The killings had an impact not just on the children's
mother and grandparents, but also stunned their home town.
The town's mayor, Doreen Jones, said: "They were
children you always felt you wanted to give a hug to, because they were
so loveable. And I know they were loved by all the family."
Father arrested over child deaths
BBC News
Monday, 6 November 2006
Police have confirmed a 35-year-old man arrested
on suspicion of the murder of two children in Denbighshire is their
father.
The man has been named locally as Perry Samuel.
Caitlin Samuel, five, and her brother, Aidan Samuel,
three, were found at a house in Bodelwyddan near Rhyl just before 2300
GMT on Sunday.
In a statement, the children's family said: "We
cannot express just how much we loved our two little angels."
The brother and sister were found at a house in
Coronation Close by two female police officers after a 999 call was
made. Mr Samuel was alone in the house when they called.
The children were taken to Ysbyty Glan Clwyd where
they were pronounced dead less than an hour later. It is not yet known
how they died.
Detective Chief Inspector Dave Jolly said : "We are
keeping a completely open mind about the cause of the deaths and we are
pursuing a number of lines of inquiry.
"It would be completely wrong to speculate about the
cause of death at this moment."
He described the children's family as "extremely
traumatised".
A statement issued from the family read: "Following
last night's tragic and incomprehensible incident, we are appealing
directly to the media that they respect our wishes and that we are
allowed the breathing space we so desperately need to come to terms with
this terrible life-changing situation in private so we can mourn in
peace and with dignity."
'Tragic loss'
The house has been cordoned off by police tape.
Flowers and soft toys, including a Winnie the Pooh bear, had been left
by well-wishers.
Both children were pupils at Ysgol y Faenol school in
Bodelwyddan.
Head teacher Martin Edwards said: "Our whole school
community has been deeply shocked and saddened at this tragic loss.
"The two children were bright, popular and happy
pupils and will be very sadly missed by their classmates and the staff
at the school. Our thoughts and condolences are with the family at this
time."
Neighbour John Bairstow, said there were a lot of
children in the street who tended to play together.
"This is a family-oriented area. You have second
generation people on this street, who grew up here and now have families
of their own.
"It is terribly sad news, particularly as I'm sure
this little boy and girl will have been well-known to the children and
other families on this street."
