A man convicted of murdering his wife after enlisting their young child to assist in the attack has had the minimum term of his life sentence increased by four years. The Court of Appeal ruled the original minimum term of 29 and a half years was “unduly lenient,” raising it to 33 and a half years.

Robert Rhodes, 53, killed his wife Dawn in their Redhill, Surrey home in 2016. He had schemed for months beforehand and involved their child, who was under 10 years old, in the murder plot. Rhodes instructed the child to ask Dawn to close her eyes before attacking her by slashing her throat. Following the killing, Rhodes stabbed himself and inflicted a wound on the child’s arm in an attempt to frame the incident as self-defense.

Rhodes was initially acquitted in 2017 by a jury at the Old Bailey who accepted his false version of events. However, in 2021, the child, who had been traumatized by the ordeal, disclosed the truth to a therapist and subsequently to the police. Rhodes was retried at Inner London Crown Court in December 2021 and found guilty of murder, two counts of perjury related to false testimony at the Old Bailey trial and in family court proceedings, perverting the course of justice, and child cruelty.

Solicitor General Ellie Reeves referred the original sentence to the Court of Appeal, arguing it did not adequately reflect the severity of the crime. During the appeal hearing, lawyers for the prosecution contended that the starting point for Rhodes’s murder sentence alone should have been 30 years, before considering the additional offenses. Rhodes’s legal representatives, speaking via video link from HMP Wayland in Norfolk, argued for the sentence to remain unchanged.

Lady Justice May, presiding with Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb and Judge Nigel Lickley KC, deemed the murder “truly appalling” and characterized the sentence as too lenient. The judges emphasized the particularly egregious nature of Rhodes’s manipulation of the child, describing it as “callous, selfish manipulation and abuse” that was insufficiently reflected in the original sentencing remarks by Mrs Justice Ellenbogen. The ruling effectively extends Rhodes’s earliest possible release date to 2057.

At the time of the murder, Rhodes told police that Dawn had attacked both him and their child, instructing the child to maintain this false narrative. During the sentencing hearing in January, the child delivered a victim impact statement expressing enduring feelings of guilt and shame, accusing Rhodes of lying, bribing, and manipulating them for his own benefit.

Tom Little KC, representing the Solicitor General, highlighted the premeditated nature of the murder and described the case as being of “exceptional seriousness.” Lady Justice May underscored the “utter cruelty” involved in exploiting the innocent child to facilitate the crime.