Crampton trial: Killer's 'mental decline'

Nov 20 2008 by Ben Guy, The Journal

THE mother of a former taxi driver who stabbed four members of his family to death has told a court of her son’s mental decline in the months leading up to the tragedy.

Ann Crampton said her son Neil had wanted to resume his relationship with ex-partner Liz Sobo and could not bear to think of her with another man.

She agreed a holiday he took to Turkey six months before the killings to be with Ms Sobo and their children Abigail, 12 and Steven, five, had been a disaster.

And she said when she and her husband picked him up from the airport: “We were absolutely totally shocked by his appearance.

“He had lost so much weight and he was so grim faced,” she told Newcastle Crown Court. “We couldn’t believe it,”

Mrs Crampton said Neil later went on holiday to South-East Asia, returning still hoping to resume the relationship.

She said he had seemed “even thinner, depressed, very sad, wanting to be on his own and just tense and stressed,” after seeing Liz on his return.

She said her son spoke of his suspicions Liz was seeing one of his friends after they had by coincidence been in Cyprus at the same time, and about his fears of losing his children.

“Once he thought things, they seemed to become true to him,” Mrs Crampton told the court.

“I don’t think he could bear to think of Liz having a relationship with another man.”

Crampton stabbed Ms Sobo, 36, their two children and her brother Yemi, 41, to death at the family’s home in Hawthorn Gardens, Kenton, Newcastle.

The 36-year-old, of Huntley Crescent, Winlaton, Gateshead, denies four charges of murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Jurors also heard Crampton’s version of events in a summary of police interviews read out by Robert Adams for the prosecution. In earlier interviews he claimed he had a limited recollection of what occurred at the house but recalled arguing with Liz downstairs, he thought, while the children were upstairs in bed.

He said he also remembered fighting with Liz and Yemi, that Yemi had punched him. He said he recalled stabbing them both with a knife though could not remember where it came from.

Crampton initially told officers he did not know how Abigail and Steven had died or whether he had killed them, but that he had been “devastated” when he saw their bodies.

But he later accepted he had killed both children in the same way as the two adults, saying he thought he had killed Abigail first. “He couldn’t say why he simply didn’t walk out after killing Liz and Yemi,” said Mr Adams.

“He didn’t think the children saw what had happened. He thought Steven was the last to die.”

Crampton had agreed he was a jealous person and when it was suggested to him he “could not hack it” because Liz had been leaving him, replied: “ I couldn’t hack the fact, no, she was a beautiful woman.”

He told officers. “I was losing her like you’ve said. You’re putting words in my mouth, but ultimately it is the truth.”

The trial continues today.