Man guilty of murdering stepdaughter and husband in their home

A man has been found guilty of killing his stepdaughter and her husband “in quick succession”, before picking their children up from school.

Parents-of-four Josh Bashford, 33, and Chloe Bashford, 30, were found dead at their home in Newhaven, East Sussex, on June 9 2023.

Derek Martin, 67, from Brighton, admitted manslaughter of the couple in August 2023, but denied murder.

On Monday, jurors at Brighton Law Courts rejected Martin’s claims of diminished responsibility because of a mental episode, and found him guilty on both counts of murder.

After killing the couple, Martin collected two of their children from school and met all four in a Costa Coffee before taking them to their grandmother’s house, the court heard.

Martin and Mrs Bashford were reportedly “close” and had spent the morning together, before he attacked her with a hammer and stabbed her eight times, just after midday.

He then ambushed Mr Bashford, who had been driving home from work, and chased him into an upstairs bedroom before stabbing and ligaturing him.

That afternoon Martin met their four children at the coffee shop and then dropped them at their grandmother’s house, before turning himself in at Brighton police station.

Prosecuting, Julian Evans KC said: “Chloe and Joshua were attacked and killed in quick succession. Both attacks took place inside their home address.

“Chloe was attacked first. When she was attacked, Chloe and Derek Martin were in the house together. Josh was not there at the time, he was about to arrive at home.

“At about 12.16, just after a quarter past midday, Derek Martin attacked Chloe with a hammer. He hit her with the hammer on the top of her head.

“Then he went to the kitchen to retrieve a large knife and having done so, he then repeatedly stabbed Chloe with that knife, causing severe injuries from which she died.

“At about 12.20 Josh arrived home. Just after he entered the house, Derek Martin attacked him.

“In the course of the attack, Derek Martin repeatedly stabbed Josh with a knife and compressed his neck with a ligature, causing injuries from which he too died.”

Martin removed the handles from the doors of the bedrooms in which the bodies were lying, changed his clothes and took the doorbell camera off the front door, the court heard.

Later, after stopping to dispose of Mrs Bashford’s phone, and drop off the children, he went into the police station and said: “I’ve murdered two people.”

While Martin was no longer in a relationship with Mrs Bashford’s mother, he had stayed “close friends” with his stepdaughter, and she referred to him as “step dad” in a text to her friend the day she died, the court heard.

Her eldest son described Martin as a “grandfather figure” and said he was “easy to be around”, but added that he had a “bad temper” and could “switch up” easily.

Martin first admitted being responsible for the killings in a police interview on June 10 2023.

Mr Evans recounted the interview in court: “He said that he felt he was getting ‘used’ all of the time. He could not do enough for people, and he had got into a lot of debt himself as well.

“Then he said that he ‘just lost it’ and he ‘just flipped’. He hit Chloe on the head with the hammer. He did not know what had happened.

“He said that Josh came in the door. He (Martin) was behind the door. He said that Josh saw him with the knife in his hand and he ran upstairs.

“Martin followed Josh upstairs and Josh ran into the bedroom.

“He said that he remembered stabbing Josh. He stabbed him somewhere in the front of his body. He did not know how many times he stabbed him.”

Five psychiatrists had been instructed to assess whether Martin could use the diminished responsibility defence.

Jurors did not accept his case and unanimously found him guilty of the murder of the young couple after almost six hours of deliberation.

He will be sentenced on November 6.