Brute dug my daughter’s grave months before he battered her to death with hammer – he must not be freed early
EVER since her abusive son-in-law killed her daughter, Diana Parkes has dedicated her life to making her home a safe haven for her grandchildren.
Katie and Alex were only nine and ten when their mother Joanna Simpson was killed by their father Robert Brown in their home while they played in the next room.
But just 13 years after former British Airways pilot Brown was put behind bars, Diana’s family are once again living in fear as he is set to be released halfway through his sentence.
Speaking from her home on the Isle of Man, Diana told The Sun she is convinced her former son-in-law, now 59, will find a way to hurt her family again if he is allowed out of prison.
She said: “I worry for everybody because this man is not safe.
“I think he will stop at nothing and we will be constantly looking over our shoulders.
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“Let common sense please rule the day. This man is not fit to be let out. He should stay in jail for at least his full sentence.”
On Halloween in 2010, Brown battered 46-year-old Joanna to death just one week before the finalisation of their divorce.
He had hidden the claw hammer he used to kill Joanna in one of his children’s school bags when he came to drop them off at their home in Ascot, Berks.
Brown hit Joanna 14 times over the head within earshot of their two children, then bundled her lifeless body into the boot of his car.
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Having spent months digging a grave in Windsor Great Park, he then buried her in a plastic box he had bought from a garden centre along with cable ties, latex gloves, and the weapon.
After Diana, 83, took her two grandchildren to live with her, Katie sat on her knee and told her she remembered hearing the “bang, bang, bang” of the weapon hitting her mum.
During a ten-day trial in 2011, Brown argued that he had suffered a momentary lapse of judgment and was suffering from adjustment disorder, a stress-related condition.
The prosecution argued that it was a premeditated attack, demonstrated by the fact that Brown had spent months digging the grave beforehand.
To the horror of Joanna’s family’s, he was cleared of murder and given a 26-year sentence for manslaughter.
Outside Reading Crown Court in 2011, Diana said: “There has been a gross miscarriage of justice.”
During the trial, judge Mr Justice Cook had told Brown: “Your responsibility, though diminished, remains substantial. You intended to kill, you intended to conceal the body and to hide the evidence of the killing.”
Joanna had been the victim of domestic abuse through coercive control, isolation and intimidation, which culminated in severe violence before she started divorce proceedings.
In 2007, three years before she was killed, Brown had held a knife to her neck after she had returned home with the children from a party at a friend’s house.
In her divorce statement, Joanna revealed that Brown had called her to say he was “having very dark thoughts”.
She said: “The event was very frightening, erased all meaningful communication and resulted in me applying for a non-molestation and occupation order.
“Since then I have not wanted to be alone with him, we have not lived together and there has been negligible constructive communication between us.”
She rang her mum the morning after the incident and told her: “Ma, Rob’s attacked me with a knife”.
Diana said: “She had said to him ‘What will happen to the children if you kill me?’ and he said ‘You’ll be dead and I’ll be in prison’.”
The two then started a bitter three-year divorce battle over her wealth, which ended when he brought the claw hammer to her home in 2010.
‘Jury were hoodwinked’
Joanna had access to a trust fund which had been set up by her father, who died in 2001, which was a cause of resentment for Brown.
Their family home, a mock-Tudor mansion in Ascot, was always in Joanna’s name. The prospect of Brown being let out just as Katie and Alex are entering adulthood has driven Diana to launch an appeal for Justice Secretary Dominic Raab to block his early release.
She has watched the news in horror as criminals such as Damien Bendall and Jordan McSweeney were allowed out of prison and went on to commit murder.
The Isle of Man is likely to be an exclusion zone as part of Brown’s probation but she is worried he will still seek out her family.
Diana, who set up the in memory of her daughter to help protect children who have suffered from domestic violence and homicide, said: “We have been left in the dark through this disaster.
"We won’t know where he is when he is left out. We will always be looking over our shoulders.
“If he’s told to avoid an area then he will know where they are. I really want to appeal to Dominic Raab to review this case and see what a miscarriage of justice it was. It was not common sense at all.
“The jury were hoodwinked by his charm. It was a total travesty.
“This man is not fit to be let out. He should stay in jail for at least his full sentence. Please review it and let us live in some peace.”
Joanna’s final resting place is now a peaceful plot on the family estate, surrounded by woodland, with a headstone reading: “Devoted Mummy to Alex and Katie, Adored Daughter of Diana and Christopher, Cherished Sister of James.”
It could not be more different to the grave in Windsor Great Park where Brown had intended her to stay.
When Diana took the children to lay flowers at the original site, they recognised it straight away. She revealed: “Alex said ‘We know this place really well. We have a den nearby that dad built for us’.
“While they were in their den he was digging her grave.”
By contrast, the quiet spot on Diana’s land is surrounded by woodland and covered with flowers.
She said: “Jo had just taken some cuttings of hydrangeas and I’ve planted them all up there too.
“It’s terribly peaceful. I talk to her and tell her what the children have been up to.
“As the children have progressed through their lives I tell them what they’ve been doing and I say, ‘You would be so proud of them’. She would be.”
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A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "This was an appalling crime and our thoughts remain with Joanna Simpson's family and friends.
"Mr Raab will do everything in his power to keep the most dangerous offenders behind bars and has pledged to give this case his closest personal attention."
