Overview

• Prosecutors told jurors Martin attacked his stepdaughter, Chloe Bashford, with a hammer and then stabbed her eight times shortly after midday on 9 June 2023.
• Minutes later, husband Josh Bashford arrived home, was chased upstairs, stabbed four times, and had his neck compressed with a ligature in the main bedroom.
• The court heard Martin removed bedroom door handles and the front door’s camera, changed clothes, disposed of a phone, collected the couple’s four children, and then surrendered at Brighton police station.
• In police interviews, Martin said he felt used and in debt and that he ‘just lost it’ or ‘flipped’ before the killings.
• Five psychiatrists reported he had a depressive disorder at the time, though they differ on its effect on culpability, and the trial in Brighton is expected to last up to three weeks.