A “monster” father who murdered his wife and their 12-year-old autistic daughter has been told that there is a “strong possibility” he will die in prison.
Peter Nash strangled “petite” Jillu Nash in a fit of rage after she began a relationship with a work colleague before he stabbed his non-verbal autistic daughter Louise to death.
The 47-year-old then unsuccessfully tried to kill himself by repeatedly stabbing himself in the chest at the family’s home in Great Waldingfield, Suffolk last September.
After being found guilty of their murders at an earlier trial at Ipswich Crown Court, Mr Justice Edward Murray sentenced him to at least 40 years in prison today.
The judge told the defendant: “Even if you live a long life, there’s a strong possibility given your current age that you will die in prison.”
He said Nash “attempted to justify these murders with relation to a deeply flawed set of beliefs about the law that you’ve got from internet searches”.
He said the defendant had shown no remorse for the killings. Prosecutor David Josse KC said that the defendant murdered his wife and daughter either late on September 7 or early on September 8 last year.
Mrs Nash’s mother Dhruti Shah, who was also Louise’s grandmother, fought back tears as she read her victim impact statement in court.
She described her daughter as a “brilliant mum” with a “beautiful smile” and a “positive attitude towards life”. “She always did the best by her beautiful daughter Lou,” said Mrs Shah.
She said that “losing my girls was like losing one’s breathe”. Mrs Shah described Nash as a “living human monster”, adding: “He took life like they were toys in his hands.”
She described him as “evil beyond belief”, weeping as she told of how her daughter was a “petite woman and how a little non-verbal child went to sleep innocently to never wake up again”.
The judge said Mrs Nash was a “loving and devoted mother” to autistic Louise.
He said Louise was a “happy and cheerful girl who inspired great affection in those who knew her”.
Nash showed no visible reaction as his sentence was read out and he used his walking frame to head down to the cells, as family members of Mrs Nash wept in the public gallery.
Speaking after the sentencing, senior investigating officer Detective Inspector Craig Powell said: “Jillu Nash was nothing more than a woman who wanted and needed a new start in life.
“Through our own dealings with Peter Nash and from his time in the dock in court, it was apparent to everyone that he must have been a very difficult person to live with.
“Louise Nash had every right to expect her father to protect her, not to be the person who – to use his own words – ‘ended her life’.
“She was an innocent 12-year-old girl murdered by a man with a warped view of the world.”
