Man jailed for at least 29 years and six months for murdering wife after child’s new evidence led to retrial

‘Highly unusual’ double jeopardy casepublished at 13:51 GMT

13:51 GMT

Speaking to BBC South East, legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg
called the case, including the aspects of double jeopardy, “highly unusual”.

Rozenberg said: “It’s very unusual for the witness to come
forward and say what they told the police was wrong.

“It’s very unusual indeed for a witness who was present at
the crime to come forward later and say what they saw.”

As a reminder, Robert Rhodes was convicted due to double
jeopardy rules which allow serious cases to be retried again when new and compelling
evidence which was not available during the first trial is brought to light.

Often this comes about due to new DNA evidence, but in this
case it was the new account of Rhodes’ child, which was revealed to their
therapist.