Family found dead at home

BBC News

Police are trying to establish a motive after a father apparently killed his three young children and his wife before committing suicide at their family home.

West Midlands Police found the bodies of the children and their mother when they forced their way into the house in Sparkhill, Birmingham, on Monday afternoon.

The man, who has not been named, was found hanged on an upstairs landing.

The victims had all been stabbed to death. The woman, who was found in an upstairs bedroom, had also suffered a head injury.

Police said one boy aged two to three, and a girl aged about seven, were found dead in a downstairs kitchen, and a boy aged about nine was discovered in an upstairs front bedroom.

The police had been alerted by a relative who raised the alarm when he could not gain entry to the house.

They believe the incident occurred sometime over the weekend.

Inspector Phil Wright described the scene inside the terraced house as the "worst" he had seen in 20 years' service.

"Officers were faced with a tragic scene," he said.

He said that police were not looking for anybody else in connection with the incident, "but obviously we are looking into the family background and conducting background inquiries."

He said the main line of inquiry centred on the possibility that the man had stabbed his wife and children to death before taking his own life.

Family 'appeared happy'

Neighbours said they were shocked that a seemingly normal couple and their three young children could be found dead in such circumstances.

Bernadette Colfer and her husband Mark lived two doors away from the family.

Mrs Colfer said: "They were a very nice respectable couple and the children were lovely."

Her husband added: "They were lovely little children, a little girl and two boys, and they appeared to be a happy family.

"I can't believe it, I saw the man only on Saturday."

Another neighbour, who declined to be named, said she had babysat twice for the couple's youngest child.

"They were good people who cared about each other. It's a terrible shock," she said.

The neighbour said the couple had worked together in their own cleaning business.

She added: "The little boy was lovely. They were beautiful children and it's terribly sad."

Post mortem examinations are to be held on Tuesday.

  

BBC News

More than 150 mourners have attended the funeral of a family who died in what police believe was a "tragic" domestic killing.

Police believe Peter Stafford, 30, stabbed wife Helen and children Kellie, seven, Daniel, six, and Joe, two, before hanging himself from a bannister of their home in Sparkhill, Birmingham.

The bodies were found by police two weeks ago, after the children's grandfather could get into the house.

The Rev Peter Babington, assistant priest at St James the Great Church in Shirley, near Birmingham, told mourners not to look for an explanation for what had happened or seek to blame anyone for the killings.

"None of us can really imagine what leads anyone to take the lives of their family and themselves," he said.

"Many people are, I know, feeling a deep anger about what happened, but in this I think we must take our lead from the immediate family, whose wishes from the first have been that Helen, Pete, Kellie, Dan and Joe should be together now.

"It is heart-breaking to see these five coffins together, but it is also a sign to all of us to look with compassion and not with blame on this tragedy."

'Always smiling''

"Helen and Peter lived for their children," he said. "They were their whole world and nothing else mattered.

"They were a very happy family so it is with an almost unbearable sense of love that we remember them, as we face their tragic loss."

The priest described Mrs Stafford, a 27-year-old creche helper, as "happy and friendly" and her husband as someone "who was always smiling", easy-going and willing to help others.

The five coffins, all topped with flowers, were taken away from the church in three hearses.

The 45-minute funeral service, attended by relatives and police officers, was followed by a private service at a nearby crematorium.

An inquest has been opened and adjourned into the deaths by Birmingham Coroner Dr Richard Whittington.

The massacre has been blamed on money worries and depression suffered by Mr Stafford.

Bodies were all found at the family home

Kellie, Joe and Danny, killed by their father