After his wife and two daughters were murdered, John Hunt's dignity is humbling

Telegraph

2 days ago

What does bravery look like in 2025? Truthfully, it looks a lot like an ordinary middle-aged man getting up every morning and going to work, returning to his home at the end of the day and repeating it. Not so different from millions of his peers.
Except every time BBC racing commentator John Hunt leaves his house, he is striking a blow for goodness and hope in the face of the most unspeakable evil, the most gut-wrenching horror imaginable.
Last July, the BBC racing commentator's wife Carol, 61 and his daughters Hannah, aged 28 and Louise, 25, were slaughtered with a knife and crossbow at the family home in Bushey, Hertfordshire.
The monster who carried out this heinous crime was Kyle Clifford, Louise's 26-year-old ex-boyfriend, who was sentenced to a whole life order for the murders, meaning he will, quite rightly, never be released.
Nor will Hunt ever escape from the memory of what happened in the house where he and his remaining adult daughter, Amy, still live. Last night, they gave their first interview to Victoria Derbyshire on BBC One – and it was the most humbling and astonishingly life-affirming display of dignity and courage I can recall.
Almost a year on, John speaks to his murdered family every day. 'Sometimes I say out loud to Hannah and Louise, 'Girls, sorry I can't be with you, I'm with your mum at the moment',' he told Derbyshire. 'As I close my eyes at night, I chat to them as well. They're very close to me all the time.'
It is their legacy of love that has kept him and his surviving daughter going, he said. For Amy, speaking on camera was a way to 'breathe life back into my mum, Hannah, and Louise as fully rounded people' and show the world they were more than a statistic.
Kyle Clifford had been in their home, had accepted their hospitality many times during his 18-month relationship with Louise. But after she ended things, he turned up and stabbed Carol with a 10-inch butcher's knife before hiding her body.
Then he waited over an hour for Louise to come in from the back garden, where she was working in her dog grooming pod. When she walked in the door he gagged, restrained and raped her before killing her with a crossbow.
Her elder sister Hannah returned home seconds after Louise was killed – whereupon Clifford shot her fatally before fleeing. But before she died she somehow managed to text a friend and call the police to alert them to what was happening.
John believes that call saved his life – he felt certain that Clifford planned to kill him too. 'Her doing that has given me life,' he said. 'And I've used that to re-ground myself on a daily basis. I get to live. Hannah gave me that, and I've got to treat it as a gift from her.'
And so he has carried on living. Not just for the sake of Hannah, Louise and Carol but for the sake of Amy. Clifford was too much of a coward to turn up in court to hear his sentencing; at the time John issued a pledge: ' I want you to see what real courage is,' he said, vowing to carry on 'no matter what'.
That is bravery. That is integrity. That is the power of love in the midst of loss.