Overview
- The Court of Appeal on Tuesday raised Robert Rhodes’s minimum term from 29½ years to 33½ years and said the change means he will not be released before 2057 after credit for time already served.
- Rhodes was convicted at a retrial in December of murder, two counts of perjury, perverting the course of justice and child cruelty following the quashing of his 2017 acquittal.
- The retrial was permitted after the couple’s child told a therapist in November 2021 that Rhodes had planned the killing and had manipulated the child into helping and lying.
- Judges described the killing as “truly appalling” and said the child’s grooming and involvement were a particularly abhorrent aggravating feature that was not fully reflected in the original sentence.
- The case highlights how post‑acquittal therapeutic disclosures can reopen prosecutions under rare double‑jeopardy rules and the lasting trauma suffered by the child, who gave a victim impact statement detailing lifelong harm.