Neil Crampton guilty of quadruple murder

Nov 25 2008 By Graeme Whitfield

A jealous father who murdered his two children, their mother and uncle will serve a minimum of 35 years behind bars after he was jailed for life today.

Neil Crampton, 36, was convicted of four counts of murder at Newcastle Crown Court after a jury rejected his defence of diminished responsibility.

He hacked to death his 12-year-old daughter Abigail Crampton, her five-year-old brother Steven, their mother Olufunke Sobo, 36, and her brother Yemi, 41, in a rage after learning his on-off relationship with Ms Sobo was finally over.

The heavy cannabis user did not react when the jury forewoman returned the majority verdicts at Newcastle Crown Court.

There were gasps from the public gallery, and some jury members were in tears.

Jailing him for life, Mr Justice Wilkie said: These were killings of the utmost savagery.

You showed no mercy and in your fury you inflicted on each of them many, many blows with a knife.

I am satisfied, as has been the jury, you were fully responsible for your actions.

You snuffed out the life of a young woman, Liz Sobo, of whom no one bar you has had a bad word to say.

She was plainly a delightful, bubbly person, a good mother and generous to you in her attempt to persuade you to be a worthy father to your children.

He said her brother Yemi was a highly popular and respected public figure.

He added: You ended the lives of your two young children, Abigail and Steven, almost before they had begun.

The reason for these murders is none other than your pathetic sense of rage when she finally persuaded you that your relationship had no future.
That alone and your inability to cope with that commonplace fact of life caused you to cut them down in this savage way.

Crampton claimed he killed because he was excessively jealous and could not cope with rejection, and this constituted an abnormality of mind.

But the prosecution maintained he merely lost his temper and killed the adults, stabbing them in the head and neck, before going upstairs in the Sobo family home, and murdering his children.

He made four unsuccessful attempts to kill himself in the hours after the murders in Kenton, Newcastle, in November 2006, before dialling 999 to say: I have murdered my entire family.

The ex-cabbie was arrested by armed police outside his parents home in Winlaton, Gateshead, where he was living since he split from Ms Sobo.
Officers were concerned he might even have killed his parents too, judging from the desperate call he made to police.

But Bill and Ann Crampton were safe and well, buying Christmas presents for their grandchildren.

He struck on the night before Ms Sobos mother Omotunde Sobo, known as Tunde, was returning from a holiday in her native Nigeria.

Ms Sobo and the children shared her semi-detached home in Hawthorn Gardens, and she turned up in a taxi to find her street cordoned off.

The court heard Crampton and Ms Sobo met and fell in love while working together at a Newcastle University bar.

She quickly fell pregnant and they moved in together before the birth of their daughter Abigail.

The relationship faltered after he had a breakdown and became depressed. Shortly before Steven was born, they split up.

Since then, Crampton had affairs with prostitutes and went travelling, but remained possessive and jealous of Ms Sobo, an Asda supermarket worker.

On November 13 he went to her house and, shortly before midnight, neighbours heard screaming. He said he attacked his ex-partner with a knife and then fought her brother as he came to her aid.

Mr Sobo was staying with his mother while his flat in Gosforth was being refurbished.

After stabbing them, Crampton said he went upstairs and knifed his daughter, who tried to defend herself, then killed Steven who was asleep.

He never gave police a satisfactory explanation why he did not spare his children after slaughtering the adults.

In interview with detectives, he agreed he could not hack the fact that his ex-lover was going out of his life - although it was stressed she would always want him to maintain contact with the children.

He told them: She was a beautiful woman, I was losing her like youve said.

Youre putting words into my mouth, but ultimately it is the truth.
* There will be more on this story in tomorrow's Journal.