Dubbed Britain's most evil stepdad, Lee Ford murdered his wife and her four children at their Cornish home in 2000 then attempted to cover up their deaths.
The father of the four children is now campaigning to ensure Ford is not released from prison as his parole date approaches.
Lee Ford, then 33, went on a harrowing killing spree in 2000 and bludgeoned his wife Lesley, 36, to death with a rounders bat, then he strangled his stepchildren, Sarah Jane, 17, Anne Marie, 16, Steven, 14, and Craig, 13, with a rope in the quiet hilltop village of Carnkie, Cornwall.
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After carrying out the brutal murders, he hid their bodies in a woodshed and field, where they lay undiscovered for weeks. Meanwhile, he told people Lesley had left him and he continued living with their two shared kids - who he spared. It was almost a month before anyone reported the others missing.
But once police were involved, the operation rapidly escalated. Channel 5's Killer at the Crime Scene was broadcast last week and follows the mass murder investigation and documents how officers uncovered a web of lies as they zeroed in on their prime suspect, The Mirror reports.
In 1998, Lesley and Ford moved to Carnkie with their two shared children and Lesley's four kids from a previous marriage with ex-husband Michael Tranter. Despite living in a tight-knit community, the family kept their lives private, though it was known to many that Lesley was trapped in a controlling and abusive relationship.
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In August 2000, Lesley and her children were seen for the last time alive. Over a period of 24 hours, all five of them were ruthlessly garrotted by Ford, who killed the children with a 2ft rope from behind. Ford even attempted to cash in on victim Sarah's last wage packet from McDonald's.
Days before the first body was found, Ford asked a neighbour if he could store some Christmas presents at his home so the children would not find them. He reburied the decaying bodies of Sarah Jane and Anne Marie in a field, and was arrested before he could move the others. He refused to tell police why he killed them.
Bristol Crown Court was told Ford’s wife Lesley and her four children were garrotted so precisely as to leave little or no bruising, or damage, to the neck. The court was told that Ford spared the lives of his own two children and continued to look after them until his arrest.
Ford told investigators: "For the life of me, I do not even understand why I did what I did." But police speculated he had begun a sexual relationship with Sarah Jane. On the documentary, Deadliest Mums & Dads, Senior Investigating Officer Chris Boarland remembered the scene and how it shook his team.
He said: "It was such a horrific scene they found that badly affected experienced police officers who were used to searching for bodies. The bodies had probably been there in excess of four weeks and it had been summer. The smell was dreadful. I was out on the road with other officers and that smell hit us from there."
Ford is currently serving five life sentences at HMP Durham but will be eligible for parole in 2027. Lesley's ex-husband Michael, among many others, believe Ford should spend the rest of his life behind bars. Three years ago, he launched a campaign urging the government to guarantee the barbaric killer will die in prison.
He said: "It's been 21 years of torture and it has truly changed me as a person. I feel as if I'm the one with the life sentence. After the 20th anniversary of the murders, I've been getting more and more anxious knowing he could be out in a few years. For what he has done, he deserves to suffer in prison for the rest of his life. I just want someone to tell me the man who killed my children and their mother will never be free again."
