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Roger
PANES
Classification: Mass murderer
Characteristics:
Parricide
-
Member of the Exclusive Brethren religious sect
Number of victims: 4
Date of murders:
March 4,
1974
Date of birth: 1933
Victims profile: His wife Pamela, 39, his two sons Graham, 7, and Adrian, 4, and
his daughter Angela, 6
Method of murder:
Beating with
an axe
Location:
Andover,
Hampshire, England, United Kingdom
Status: Committed suicide by hanging himself the same day
Roger Panes (1933-1974), was a member of
the Exclusive branch of the Plymouth Brethren. In 1974 he killed his
wife and three children with an axe before hanging himself.
Life
Panes was a cattle dealer in Andover, Hampshire. In
November 1973 he was "shut up," or shunned, by the other members of his
church for wrongfully shunning another member. His family was encouraged
to shun him in turn; he couldn't sleep with his wife or eat with the
family.
In February 1974, Panes was taken to hospital having
taken an overdose of tablets. He recovered; but, on March 4, 1974, he
killed his wife Pamela, 39, his two sons Graham, 7, and Adrian, 4, and
his daughter Angela, 6, as they slept in their beds. An axe was found
covered in blood. He then hanged himself from the stair bannisters with
an electrical cable.
A note was also found in the house:
"There's never been such a wicked man. This house
will have to be left empty or bulldozed. You go to the Brethren. I
trust they will take you in. Cry to God for mercy for you all and the
dear children. The Lord is coming very soon."
An inquest was held and a jury decided that Panes had
killed his family while the "balance of his mind was disturbed".
Wikipedia.org
Father Ostracised by Sect Axed Family to
Death
CultHelp.info
A member of the Exclusive Brethren religious sect
murdered his wife and three children after being ostracized by fellow
members, an inquest was told yesterday.
Roger Panes, 41, cattle dealer, axed to death his
wife Pamela, 39, his two sons Graham 7, and Adrian, 4, and his six-year-old
daughter Angela, as they slept in their beds at their detached home in
Salisbury Road, Andover, Hants.
He then hanged himself from the bannisters with a
length of electric flex.
Det. Chief Insp. Stanley Atkinson, head of
Basingstoke CID, told the inquest at Andover that he found Mrs. Panes
lying in a double bed in a front upstairs bedroom in the house. She had
severe head injuries. The children were found with similar injuries in
other bedrooms.
In another bedroom a blood stained axe with a seven
and a half inch blade was found. Also in the room was a bed which had
been prepared but not slept in.
Mr. Atkinson then read part of a statement he had
taken from a Mr. Fennell, the sect's leader in Andover in which he said
Mr. Panes had been "shut up" by other members of the Brethren.
The statement said: "Roger Panes was shut up during
November 1973, because of the way he treated another member of the
brethren over a minor technical offence, and shut up that person
wilfully."
The statement said that this "shutting up" was
carried out by Mr. Panes without the consent of other members of the
brethren.
Between November and February, members of the
brethren had called on Mr. Panes five or six times but the matter had
not been resolved.
On Feb. 21, Mrs. Panes contacted Mr. Fennell to tell
him that her husband had taken an overdose of tablets and had been
admitted to hospital.
Cut off from family
On March 2 -- two days before the murders were
discovered -- a meeting was held by the Brethren but no decision was
taken to "withdraw from him or excommunicate him."
Mr. Atkinson said the term "shut up" meant that all
other Brethren were not allowed to associate with the member concerned
or his family.
"If it is mutually agreed between him and his wife,
he can be shut up from them (his family) -- that is to say he is cut off
from the rest of his family within his own household," he added.
This meant he did not sleep with his wife or eat with
the rest of his family.
Dr. Vanessa Heath said she saw Mr. Panes after he
took the overdose in February. When she suggested to his wife that he
should be seen by a psychiatrist, she said that it was a matter between
him and God.
In a pocket of a jacket found in the house was an
unaddressed note in Mr. Panes' handwriting.
It read: "There's never been such a wicked man. This
house will have to be left empty or bulldozed. You go to the Brethren.
I trust they will take you in. "Cry to God for mercy for you all and the
dear children. The Lord is coming very soon."
The jury returned a verdict that Mr. Panes murdered
his wife and three children and then committed suicide while the balance
of his mind was disturbed.
In his summing up to the jury Mr. Ronald Bowker, the
coroner, said: "It is up to anyone in this country to follow such
religious beliefs as he pleases, without question. The only
qualification I suppose one would make is if such beliefs are thought to
be injurious to the community as a whole or individuals in particular.
"These might be matters for inquiry, but matters for
inquiry elsewhere and not here."
The Exclusive Brethren is notorious for the severity
of its discipline and was ruled with an iron hand by its world leader,
Big Jim Taylor, until his death in 1970.
*****
Words that spelt death
by Jack Hill
A religious fanatic was driven to provide his own Day
of Judgment after other members of his strict sect turned against him.
That meant death not only for himself but for the
family he was devoted to -- his wife and three young children.
He killed them one by one with an axe and hanged
himself from a banister.
Then he left instructions that to obliterate
completely all memory of the family of "such a wicked man," even their
house should be bulldozed to the ground.
As the story of horror was told to an inquest in
Andover, Hants, yesterday, more than 150 members of the local Exclusive
Brethren filled the public benches.
They heard Detective Chief Inspector Stanley Atkinson
tell how, when they cast out 41-year-old Mr. Roger Panes from their
group, the anguish was more than he could bear.
First he tried to commit suicide by taking an
overdose of drugs. But he was saved by hospital treatment.
On March 5 a Post Office engineer called to fix the
phone in the Panes home in Salisbury Road, Andover.
Hanging
He found Mr. Panes hanging from the bannister with a
length of electric wire round his nect.
When police arrived they found Mrs. Pamela Panes
hacked to death by an axe in the front bedroom. The children, Graham,
aged seven, Adrian, four, and Angela, aged six, were found in other
rooms, all killed by axe wounds.
In Mr. Panes trousers, found neatly placed in his
bedroom was a note which said.
There's never been such a wicked man. This house
will have to be left empty or bulldozed and you to to the Brethrne. I
trust they will take you in.
Cry to God for mercy for you and the dear children.
The Lord is coming very soon.
In a statement read to the inquest, Mr. George Fenalh
of Barlow's Lane, Andover, who was said to be a "responsible member" of
the Brethren, said Mr. Panes had been "shut up" in November, 1973.
He was shut up because of the way he treated
another member of the Brethren over a minor technical offence. He
shut up that person wrongly. That was not right. It was contrary to
the accepted code and violations of the Divine Principles involved in
the Brethren.
Definition
As he was unable to accept these, he was shut up.
Detective Chief Inspector Atkinson gave the inquest
jury a definition of being "shut up."
He said: -- "It means he is shut up from the other
Brethren none of whome are allowed to associate with him and his family.
"If mutually agreed between him and his wife he can
be shut up by the rest of his family in his own household. He doesn't
sleep with his wife and he doesn't eat with the rest of his family."
Dr. Vanessa Heath, from Winchester Hospital, said
that when Mr. Panes was admitted with a drug overdose she asked his wife
why he had taken it. "She told me it was a matter between him and God.
She would offer no further explanation."
Directing the jury to return a verdict of murder on
the wife and three children, and suicide on Mr. Panes, the coroner, Mr.
Ronald Bowker said: "We have purposely not embarked on the prophecies
and beliefs of the Exclusive Brethren and their discipline.
