Aug. 5, 2025
168: The Dragon Rise Murders Part 02
Not long after 9 PM on that Sunday night, in the sleepy new-build development of Dragon Rise, the back door security light of Jennifer and Stephen Chapple’s home flicked on. Their two boys aged 5 and 6 years old had been put to bed hours before and were sleeping soundly upstairs.
36-year-old Stephen was a well-loved IT teacher at West Somerset College. It was a secondary school in Minehead in Somerset, 23 miles away from his home in Dragon Rise. His wife 33-year-old Jennifer worked as a Customer Service Advisor at the coffee shop of the popular Otter Garden Centre in Norton Fitzwarren. At that time on a Sunday night, they were probably thinking about preparing for bed themselves. They had no idea what was about to explode into their home.
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WEBVTT
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[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome, listener.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I'm glad you're here.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Take a seat.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Next to the fire.
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[SPEAKER_06]: Welcome to Obscura, where we shine a light on the dark.
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[SPEAKER_05]: On Thursday, November, twenty-fifth, two thousand twenty-one, four days after the murders, Reeves was led into Taunt and Magistrates Corps to face two charges of murder for Jennifer and Stephen Chappell.
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[SPEAKER_05]: In the two-minute hearing, the charges were read and Reeves spoke to Confirm his name.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The following day, he appeared at Exeter Crown Corps, via video link, charged with the murders.
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[SPEAKER_05]: His lawyers made no application for bail, knowing it would not be granted.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Judge Peter Johnson listened to the facts of the case, and reminded Reeves into custody.
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[SPEAKER_05]: A HMP Exeter, a category B men's prison, is the holding prison for men awaiting trial, or already sentenced in the four counties of Northwest England.
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[SPEAKER_05]: HMP Exeter has in the past been noted for violence, high levels of self-harm, and suicide with assaults commonplace.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He was marked for independent review in two thousand nineteen.
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[SPEAKER_05]: If Reeves were to be convicted of his charges, he would likely be sent to this prison to serve the entirety of his sentence.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Relatives and friends of the chapels set up a crowdfunding page for them after they were killed to support their family and their children.
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[SPEAKER_05]: By Christmas that year, the first one of the children would spend without their parents, the page had raised twenty-two thousand pounds.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Five days later, Jennifer's funeral was held.
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[SPEAKER_05]: In May, twenty-two, a hearing at Winchester Crown Corps saw Colin Reeves admit manslaughter, but plead not guilty to murder by reason of diminished responsibility.
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[SPEAKER_05]: My partial psychiatric defense, this plea would rely on his defense team, being able to prove he was suffering an abnormality of mental functioning at the time of the murders.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The managed responsibility as a high threshold, it would not be an easy defense to win.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The prosecuting barrister Adam Feast QC has held the prestigious silk tunnel since, in, in, as a senior Queen's council, he is an experienced and capable criminal barrister.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He indicated to the judge he did not accept Reeves' plea and would be taking the case to trial the following month.
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[SPEAKER_05]: As June slowly came around, it's impossible to imagine how the families of Jennifer and Stephen were preparing themselves for the trial of the man who took their lives.
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[SPEAKER_05]: So many unanswered questions coupled with immense grief, must leave a sea of emotions incredibly painful to comprehend.
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[SPEAKER_05]: On Wednesday, June A's, the trial of Colin Reeves began in Bristol Crown Court.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It had been seven months since Reeves charged into the chapel's home with a dagger.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Now he sat in the courtroom faced with the families of Jennifer and Stephen, knowing his fate would soon be decided.
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[SPEAKER_05]: His barrister was also a QC.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Jennifer Martin took silk in two thousand eighteen and held an equally impressive background in criminal law as her opposing console for the prosecution.
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[SPEAKER_05]: She would be arguing that Colin Reeves was guilty of manslaughter, not murder, claiming he suffered PTSD from his time in the Army.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It was triggered on that night.
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[SPEAKER_05]: His state of mind, she would argue, was significantly impaired.
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[SPEAKER_05]: She would also call the defendant himself to the stand to explain his actions.
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[SPEAKER_05]: After opening statements by both sides, the first witnesses were called to describe the events of that night.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The chapel's neighbors, Tim and Emma Sloancomb and Sean Harve, told the jury about the screaming they heard, and the terrible scene they found inside the chapel's living room.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Kaylee Reeves also gave evidence.
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[SPEAKER_05]: She did so via video link from another room in the courthouse, unable to face being inside the courtroom itself.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The trauma of the last seven months for her and their two young daughters must have also been deeply distressing.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The man she loved as her husband had carried out the most brutal attack on their next door neighbors.
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[SPEAKER_05]: From the moment he was arrested for their murder, she has also tried to deal with the fallout.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Kaylee told the jury what happened on the night of the murders.
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[SPEAKER_05]: She was able to tell them what was happening inside of her home around Collins, nine, nine, nine call.
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[SPEAKER_05]: She explained how she had told him she wanted a trial separation, less than an hour before he had crept over the fence, and her Jennifer and Steven's home.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Cross-examined by Joanna Martin Q.C.E.
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[SPEAKER_05]: She was questioned about Collins' mental health, since he returned from active duty in Afghanistan.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Kaylee described a man who was changed by that tour of duty.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He didn't talk about what happened, but he was different when he returned home.
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[SPEAKER_05]: In recent years, he had struggled with crowds of people.
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[SPEAKER_05]: A and told her of dark thoughts he often had while in the cab of the Lori.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He now drove for a living.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He told her he felt he was on camera in the cab.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He was being watched on the time.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He had put cameras up around their home, and covered the camera on his mobile phone.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He had become increasingly frustrated with the chapels, and where Jennifer was parking her car outside.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The two families parking spaces sat immediately next to each other.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Outside their homes, they were vertical spaces along residents to swing their cars and noses pointing at their front door, the rear of their cars at the roadside.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Jennifer was parking her car on the road, either sitting behind her husbands, or sometimes in front of the small garden patch, closer to the Reeves home, depending on where there was a space.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It was parking that infuriated Colin at times, structing his parking space, and making his parking difficult.
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[SPEAKER_05]: On November eleven, ten days before the murders, Jennifer's door camera captured Colin approaching Jennifer.
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[SPEAKER_05]: As she returned home at five, fifteen in the evening,
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[SPEAKER_04]: She's when you started the f*** off.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Reeves had stepped outside his home to abuse Jennifer as she walked from her car to her front door.
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[SPEAKER_05]: When Jennifer went inside, Kaylee can be heard asking what he was doing before an argument ensues between them.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It was footage that gave a clear indication of the level of tension between Reeves and the Chambles.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It would become a horrible precursor to a much more vicious and physical attack, less than two weeks later.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Kaylee told the court she was keen for Colin to seek help for how he was feeling.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He was worried that if he started medication, he wouldn't be able to drive and lose his job.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Seeking help and speaking with a doctor was not something Colin wanted to do.
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[SPEAKER_05]: When Reeves also took the stand and described to the jury, our son at witness domestic violence in the family home growing up, carried out by his father Brian Reeves.
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[SPEAKER_05]: No charges had resulted from his arrest at the scene.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Once police had confirmed he didn't arrive at Dragonrise until after the murders, summoned by Kaylee's frantic phone call.
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[SPEAKER_05]: On the fourth day of the trial, Colin Reeve slowly walked around from the dock and into the witness stand.
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[SPEAKER_05]: As all eyes in the courtroom fell onto him, I see told the jury he had no memory of his attack on Jennifer and Stephen.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He remembered sitting on the stairs of his home upset after his wife, and told him she wanted a trial separation.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He felt like he was losing his family.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He told the court he didn't remember taking the dagger from its frame on the wall, or making his way into the garden and over the fence into the chapel's home.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The last thing he did remember he said was the bright white illumination of their security white.
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[SPEAKER_05]: You remember being down on one knee and thinking he had been compromised and seen.
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[SPEAKER_05]: White lights coming on like that in Afghanistan always meant something was about to happen he told the jury.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He said he thought that the light had been a trigger for him back in his military days and time in Afghanistan.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Colin Reeves tried to express his remorse over what he had done before his lawyer's question him on his training.
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[SPEAKER_05]: His garments were read by a reporter from ITV News after his testimony.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I feel ashamed, disgusted with myself at what I've done to have taken Stephen and Jennifer's life while their children slept in bed.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I can't imagine the pain and suffering that the friends and family have been suffering, knowing their two boys, knowing they can never see their mum and dad again because of me.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I've always felt ashamed to talk to anyone about my feelings, mental state or thought, because I always thought it was a sign of weakness.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But now I'm more ashamed for not talking or seeking help for what I've done.
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[SPEAKER_01]: His barrister asked, were you trained to kill?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Colin Reeves said, yes.
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[SPEAKER_01]: How were you trained to kill?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Firing weapons, shooting, close quarters combat, bayonets training.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The dagger which was in the frame, were you ever taught to use that?
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[SPEAKER_01]: No.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It would have been used during World War II.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's always been an emblem of the Commandos.
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[SPEAKER_01]: You were trained to kill prior to the twenty first of November, had you ever killed anyone?
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[SPEAKER_01]: No, he replied.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Most often at a criminal trial, the prosecution is trying to prove their case against a defendant.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Prove their guilty of the crime they've been charged with.
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[SPEAKER_05]: For Colin Reeves, his trial was very different.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He had admitted to killing Jennifer and Stephen Chappell, but his plea to murder was not guilty by reason of diminished responsibility.
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[SPEAKER_05]: This immediately flips the burden of proof.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It was now the defense who had to prove their case.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The minister's responsibility is a defense that reduces the charge of murder to one of manslaughter.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It says that an abnormality of the mind was in play during the crimes committed.
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[SPEAKER_05]: And that translated tour reduced responsibility for the defendant's actions.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Colin Reeves had to prove his mind was significantly altered when he murdered the Champels.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He had to prove his PTSD was not only present and severe that it was triggered at the time of these murders, and was the cause of his actions in abnormality of his mind.
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[SPEAKER_05]: That it impaired his ability to reason and think clearly irrational.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Reeves had to prove his PTSD caused him to murder his neighbors in the manner that he did.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The testimony of the psychiatrists would be the focus of this trial.
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[SPEAKER_05]: These medical doctors are trained in analyzing the human mind when it breaks and begins to function abnormally.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Forensic psychiatrists specialize in the criminal mind.
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[SPEAKER_05]: They are experts in the complex and fluid interactions between mental health and criminal behavior and what happens when they collide with each other.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The prosecution called Consultative Forensic psychiatrist Dr. John Sanford to the Stan, a longstanding expert witness who was well respected in his film.
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[SPEAKER_05]: After assessing Reeves, he diagnosed a mild depression, column could function normally, go to work and engage in family life, and his symptoms did not, and his opinion, crossed the threshold to meet diminished responsibility.
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[SPEAKER_05]: For the defense, consult a forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Lucy Bacon, testified about her assessment, conclusions after seeing colon and person and HMP-exitor.
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[SPEAKER_05]: She diagnosed a moderate depression, but did not think he was suffering from complex PTSD.
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[SPEAKER_05]: This is a much more severe form of PTSD that can significantly impair an individual from functioning in their daily lives.
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[SPEAKER_05]: When asked about Colin's state of mind during the murders, Dr. Bacon stated that she thought Colin might have regressed into army mode, both during the killings, and at the police station when he gave his military rank a number.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Both psychiatrists agreed there was mild to moderate depression, and both felt he was able to function in his everyday life with his job and family.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Where they disagreed was if the depression played a part in the murders.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Dr. Bacon thought it was relevant, but not a cause of the killings.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Dr. Sanford felt the depression was not involved in college actions that night at all.
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[SPEAKER_05]: In a blow to the defense, both psychiatrists, including their own expert witness, Dr. Bacon, did not believe the symptoms experienced by Reeves at the time he carried out these murders across the threshold for diminished responsibility to apply.
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[SPEAKER_05]: On June sixteenth, day seven of the trial, Defense Bear's Sir Joanna Martin Q.C.
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[SPEAKER_05]: stood to deliver her statement.
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[SPEAKER_05]: She wanted to highlight to the jury the number of questions that remained about Collins' actions.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Why would a sober man suddenly stab his neighbor to death?
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[SPEAKER_05]: Well, not only their shoulders slept upstairs, while his own shoulders slept next door, why called the police to confess?
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[SPEAKER_05]: How can that possibly be a man who was in control?
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[SPEAKER_05]: Colin Reeves believed wrongly that the only way to protect his family was to stab Jennifer and Steven Chapel.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He wasn't thinking rationally at that moment, was he?
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[SPEAKER_05]: I was stabbing the neighbor's going to protect his family.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He clearly lost his ability to exercise self-control.
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[SPEAKER_05]: His actions were out of character and respected with mental health issues.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Dr. Sanford said Mr. Reeves, quote, just soldiered on.
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[SPEAKER_05]: And literally, he did.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Despite all his training, he couldn't control the deterioration of his mental health.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He needed help.
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[SPEAKER_05]: You can answer yes to the question.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Did Colin Reeve suffered from a recognized medical condition?
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[SPEAKER_05]: And it's certain on the balance of probabilities that it's depression.
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[SPEAKER_05]: What's having an effect on a stability to think clearly?
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[SPEAKER_05]: You know that on the night of November twenty first, after the role with Kaylee, Colin Reeve sat on the stairs crying.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Something shifted in his brain.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It must have done to make him that irrational.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It must be right that his army training kicked in.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Adam Feast QC had the final word for the prosecution.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He wanted to leave no doubt in the jury's mind of Collins intent that night, and the control he had over his actions.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He spoke of how chapel security like could not have been the trigger for colon's actions.
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[SPEAKER_05]: As he was already inside their garden with the dagger, at the moment the line activated.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He highlighted that there was no record in colon's military file of frontline combat to support his claims of flashbacks.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He did serve in Afghanistan guarding prisoners, and there was evidence to support a change in him on his return.
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[SPEAKER_05]: As experienced during that tour of duty, he left an impact on him.
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[SPEAKER_05]: We don't know what he witnessed or had to do during his time there.
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[SPEAKER_05]: But there was no evidence of anything during that tour that could explain his actions and attacks on the chapples.
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[SPEAKER_05]: In November, in the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the
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[SPEAKER_05]: He believed the motive for these murders was the ongoing tension over the parking row with the chapels.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Colin disliked how he felt Jennifer was treating Kaylee.
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[SPEAKER_05]: quote, there is no dispute in this case that the defendant armed himself with a deadly weapon.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Con the fence into the neighbor's garden, window they're living room and stab them to death.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Look at the careful way he removed the dagger from its frame, so it's to not spoil the picture.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Look at how he shows a killing weapon, rather than a kitchen knife.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Look at the way he stealthily crept across his neighbor's garden, so it's to avoid detection.
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[SPEAKER_05]: In the moments after the killing, this defendant clearly did remember what had happened, what he had done, and why he had done it.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He killed the Champels for a reason, and he knew what that was, and he said it.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He couldn't let them her torment Kaylee anymore.
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[SPEAKER_05]: In this case, the evidence is not support that the defendant was suffering from diminished responsibility and killing Jennifer and Stephen Chappel.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Whatever issues the experience since leaving the army, a state of mind on November twenty first was not substantially impaired.
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[SPEAKER_05]: At ten a.m.
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[SPEAKER_05]: on the morning of June seventeen two thousand twenty two, the jury were sent out to consider their verdict.
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[SPEAKER_05]: They were turned less than five hours later confirming that a verdict in which they all agreed.
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[SPEAKER_05]: They found Colin Reeves guilty of murder for killing Jennifer and Stephen Chappell.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Reeves admitted killing the chapels, but denied it was murder, blaming post-traumatic stress disorder.
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[SPEAKER_02]: But the jury took just five hours to convict him.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Police say it was one of the most brutal attacks they've ever seen.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Colin Reeves was fully in control of his actions on the night at the twenty first of November when he went rain to get a foot Stephen's house and decided that he was going to kill him.
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[SPEAKER_02]: The families of the chapels said no verdict will bring back our beautiful Jennifer and Stephen.
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[SPEAKER_02]: We will now focus on Jennifer and Stephen's beautiful boys helping them to live the life that Jennifer and Stephen would have wished for them.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Reeves will be sentenced next week for the murder of a young couple whose children now face life without them.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Becky Johnson's Sky News at Bristol Crown Court.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Four days later in the same courtroom, Reeves returned to the dock, escorted by prison guards to receive his sentence.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Before Judge Garnham gave his sentencing remarks, the families of Jennifer and Stephen had the opportunity to provide impact statements.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Six statements were read to the court, each is heartbreaking as the next.
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[SPEAKER_05]: They appealed directly to the judge to keep Colin Reeves behind bars.
19:34.452 --> 19:38.856
[SPEAKER_05]: To never allow him to cause another family the pain and grief, they were now living.
19:39.960 --> 19:47.985
[SPEAKER_05]: Steven's sister, who is now bringing up Jennifer and Steven's two young sons, where how she is desperately trying to remain strong for them.
19:48.785 --> 19:55.449
[SPEAKER_05]: The family decided to tell the boys what had happened, so they understood why their mom and dad had suddenly disappeared.
19:56.490 --> 20:02.577
[SPEAKER_05]: Jennifer's sister expressed how she now feels frightened in her own home and scared to be out walking on her own.
20:03.478 --> 20:08.644
[SPEAKER_05]: Two families have been left devastated and utterly heartbroken by the actions of Colin Reeves.
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[SPEAKER_05]: For two young boys, especially, they will now grow up without the parents who adored them.
20:15.510 --> 20:24.595
[SPEAKER_05]: The judge told Reeves his attack on the couple was unjustified and unprovoked, causing life-long harms to their two young children who had now been left orphans.
20:25.596 --> 20:29.558
[SPEAKER_05]: Colin Reeves was given a wife sentence to serve a minimum of thirty-eight years.
20:29.578 --> 20:32.600
[SPEAKER_05]: There's unlikely he will ever be released from prison.
20:36.269 --> 20:38.270
[SPEAKER_05]: Sometimes humans act on impulse.
20:38.890 --> 20:42.391
[SPEAKER_05]: A snap decision fueled by heavy emotions that prompt action.
20:42.831 --> 20:44.292
[SPEAKER_05]: They might regret afterwards.
20:45.172 --> 20:46.552
[SPEAKER_05]: Sometimes it's the reverse.
20:47.113 --> 20:54.175
[SPEAKER_05]: A carefully thought-out plan is engineered, nurtured, and then activated, following each step methodically.
20:54.935 --> 20:58.857
[SPEAKER_05]: The actions of Colin Reeves were sudden, and snapped decisions.
20:59.457 --> 21:02.538
[SPEAKER_05]: Darm himself enforced his way to the home of his neighbors.
21:03.300 --> 21:11.649
[SPEAKER_05]: Before they had any time to react, he exploded in a frenzied rage, raining down deadly blows with a dagger, clenched in his hand.
21:12.410 --> 21:18.596
[SPEAKER_05]: Your home is supposed to be your sanctuary, comfortable and safe, to be invaded and attacked in this way.
21:18.616 --> 21:20.458
[SPEAKER_05]: It's truly terrifying.
21:21.419 --> 21:29.202
[SPEAKER_05]: Colin Reeves is a troubled man who chose not to seek help when his mind began to fracture and its emotions were becoming overwhelming.
21:30.182 --> 21:33.684
[SPEAKER_05]: The outcome was the violent and traumatic loss of two beautiful lives.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Their futures were snatched from them in the cruelest of ways.
21:38.545 --> 21:42.987
[SPEAKER_05]: A lifetime in prison for the man responsible is justice for Jennifer and Stephen.
21:44.227 --> 21:50.670
[SPEAKER_05]: Their families and two young sons will continue to keep their memories alive and ensure their wives are never forgotten
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[SPEAKER_00]: or breaking news for you now.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And if one is non-vectoring, Colin Reeves has been jailed at Bristol Crown Court for life with a minimum term of thirty-eight years for the murders of his neighbours, Stephen and Jennifer Chapel at their home.
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[SPEAKER_00]: in Northern Fitzwarren's summer set last November.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You may remember that the former soldier was found guilty at the end of last week of murdering his two neighbors in a violent knife attack as their children slept upstairs.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome, listener.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I'm glad you're here.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Take a seat.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Next to the fire.
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[SPEAKER_06]: Welcome to Obscura, where we shine a light on the dark.
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[SPEAKER_05]: On Thursday, November, twenty-fifth, two thousand twenty-one, four days after the murders, Reeves was led into Taunt and Magistrates Corps to face two charges of murder for Jennifer and Stephen Chappell.
01:03.693 --> 01:07.997
[SPEAKER_05]: In the two-minute hearing, the charges were read and Reeves spoke to Confirm his name.
01:08.658 --> 01:14.843
[SPEAKER_05]: The following day, he appeared at Exeter Crown Corps, via video link, charged with the murders.
01:16.096 --> 01:20.100
[SPEAKER_05]: His lawyers made no application for bail, knowing it would not be granted.
01:20.721 --> 01:26.286
[SPEAKER_05]: Judge Peter Johnson listened to the facts of the case, and reminded Reeves into custody.
01:26.787 --> 01:37.017
[SPEAKER_05]: A HMP Exeter, a category B men's prison, is the holding prison for men awaiting trial, or already sentenced in the four counties of Northwest England.
01:38.178 --> 01:45.704
[SPEAKER_05]: HMP Exeter has in the past been noted for violence, high levels of self-harm, and suicide with assaults commonplace.
01:46.565 --> 01:49.687
[SPEAKER_05]: He was marked for independent review in two thousand nineteen.
01:50.368 --> 01:57.573
[SPEAKER_05]: If Reeves were to be convicted of his charges, he would likely be sent to this prison to serve the entirety of his sentence.
01:58.894 --> 02:06.621
[SPEAKER_05]: Relatives and friends of the chapels set up a crowdfunding page for them after they were killed to support their family and their children.
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[SPEAKER_05]: By Christmas that year, the first one of the children would spend without their parents, the page had raised twenty-two thousand pounds.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Five days later, Jennifer's funeral was held.
02:20.801 --> 02:32.389
[SPEAKER_05]: In May, twenty-two, a hearing at Winchester Crown Corps saw Colin Reeves admit manslaughter, but plead not guilty to murder by reason of diminished responsibility.
02:33.410 --> 02:43.843
[SPEAKER_05]: My partial psychiatric defense, this plea would rely on his defense team, being able to prove he was suffering an abnormality of mental functioning at the time of the murders.
02:45.325 --> 02:50.492
[SPEAKER_05]: The managed responsibility as a high threshold, it would not be an easy defense to win.
02:51.622 --> 03:04.733
[SPEAKER_05]: The prosecuting barrister Adam Feast QC has held the prestigious silk tunnel since, in, in, as a senior Queen's council, he is an experienced and capable criminal barrister.
03:05.593 --> 03:12.339
[SPEAKER_05]: He indicated to the judge he did not accept Reeves' plea and would be taking the case to trial the following month.
03:14.000 --> 03:23.371
[SPEAKER_05]: As June slowly came around, it's impossible to imagine how the families of Jennifer and Stephen were preparing themselves for the trial of the man who took their lives.
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[SPEAKER_05]: So many unanswered questions coupled with immense grief, must leave a sea of emotions incredibly painful to comprehend.
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[SPEAKER_05]: On Wednesday, June A's, the trial of Colin Reeves began in Bristol Crown Court.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It had been seven months since Reeves charged into the chapel's home with a dagger.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Now he sat in the courtroom faced with the families of Jennifer and Stephen, knowing his fate would soon be decided.
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[SPEAKER_05]: His barrister was also a QC.
03:54.070 --> 04:03.343
[SPEAKER_05]: Jennifer Martin took silk in two thousand eighteen and held an equally impressive background in criminal law as her opposing console for the prosecution.
04:04.607 --> 04:12.792
[SPEAKER_05]: She would be arguing that Colin Reeves was guilty of manslaughter, not murder, claiming he suffered PTSD from his time in the Army.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It was triggered on that night.
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[SPEAKER_05]: His state of mind, she would argue, was significantly impaired.
04:20.257 --> 04:24.900
[SPEAKER_05]: She would also call the defendant himself to the stand to explain his actions.
04:26.501 --> 04:32.385
[SPEAKER_05]: After opening statements by both sides, the first witnesses were called to describe the events of that night.
04:33.297 --> 04:43.383
[SPEAKER_05]: The chapel's neighbors, Tim and Emma Sloancomb and Sean Harve, told the jury about the screaming they heard, and the terrible scene they found inside the chapel's living room.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Kaylee Reeves also gave evidence.
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[SPEAKER_05]: She did so via video link from another room in the courthouse, unable to face being inside the courtroom itself.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The trauma of the last seven months for her and their two young daughters must have also been deeply distressing.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The man she loved as her husband had carried out the most brutal attack on their next door neighbors.
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[SPEAKER_05]: From the moment he was arrested for their murder, she has also tried to deal with the fallout.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Kaylee told the jury what happened on the night of the murders.
05:18.495 --> 05:23.419
[SPEAKER_05]: She was able to tell them what was happening inside of her home around Collins, nine, nine, nine call.
05:24.159 --> 05:32.765
[SPEAKER_05]: She explained how she had told him she wanted a trial separation, less than an hour before he had crept over the fence, and her Jennifer and Steven's home.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Cross-examined by Joanna Martin Q.C.E.
05:37.187 --> 05:42.371
[SPEAKER_05]: She was questioned about Collins' mental health, since he returned from active duty in Afghanistan.
05:43.356 --> 05:46.537
[SPEAKER_05]: Kaylee described a man who was changed by that tour of duty.
05:47.217 --> 05:51.398
[SPEAKER_05]: He didn't talk about what happened, but he was different when he returned home.
05:52.338 --> 05:54.939
[SPEAKER_05]: In recent years, he had struggled with crowds of people.
05:54.959 --> 05:59.720
[SPEAKER_05]: A and told her of dark thoughts he often had while in the cab of the Lori.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He now drove for a living.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He told her he felt he was on camera in the cab.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He was being watched on the time.
06:08.972 --> 06:13.194
[SPEAKER_05]: He had put cameras up around their home, and covered the camera on his mobile phone.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He had become increasingly frustrated with the chapels, and where Jennifer was parking her car outside.
06:21.398 --> 06:24.900
[SPEAKER_05]: The two families parking spaces sat immediately next to each other.
06:25.540 --> 06:35.525
[SPEAKER_05]: Outside their homes, they were vertical spaces along residents to swing their cars and noses pointing at their front door, the rear of their cars at the roadside.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Jennifer was parking her car on the road, either sitting behind her husbands, or sometimes in front of the small garden patch, closer to the Reeves home, depending on where there was a space.
06:48.293 --> 06:54.918
[SPEAKER_05]: It was parking that infuriated Colin at times, structing his parking space, and making his parking difficult.
06:55.938 --> 07:02.583
[SPEAKER_05]: On November eleven, ten days before the murders, Jennifer's door camera captured Colin approaching Jennifer.
07:03.103 --> 07:05.645
[SPEAKER_05]: As she returned home at five, fifteen in the evening,
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[SPEAKER_04]: She's when you started the f*** off.
07:30.380 --> 07:35.804
[SPEAKER_05]: Reeves had stepped outside his home to abuse Jennifer as she walked from her car to her front door.
07:36.885 --> 07:43.010
[SPEAKER_05]: When Jennifer went inside, Kaylee can be heard asking what he was doing before an argument ensues between them.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It was footage that gave a clear indication of the level of tension between Reeves and the Chambles.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It would become a horrible precursor to a much more vicious and physical attack, less than two weeks later.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Kaylee told the court she was keen for Colin to seek help for how he was feeling.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He was worried that if he started medication, he wouldn't be able to drive and lose his job.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Seeking help and speaking with a doctor was not something Colin wanted to do.
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[SPEAKER_05]: When Reeves also took the stand and described to the jury, our son at witness domestic violence in the family home growing up, carried out by his father Brian Reeves.
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[SPEAKER_05]: No charges had resulted from his arrest at the scene.
08:27.086 --> 08:34.271
[SPEAKER_05]: Once police had confirmed he didn't arrive at Dragonrise until after the murders, summoned by Kaylee's frantic phone call.
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[SPEAKER_05]: On the fourth day of the trial, Colin Reeve slowly walked around from the dock and into the witness stand.
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[SPEAKER_05]: As all eyes in the courtroom fell onto him, I see told the jury he had no memory of his attack on Jennifer and Stephen.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He remembered sitting on the stairs of his home upset after his wife, and told him she wanted a trial separation.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He felt like he was losing his family.
08:59.788 --> 09:07.875
[SPEAKER_05]: He told the court he didn't remember taking the dagger from its frame on the wall, or making his way into the garden and over the fence into the chapel's home.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The last thing he did remember he said was the bright white illumination of their security white.
09:15.649 --> 09:19.974
[SPEAKER_05]: You remember being down on one knee and thinking he had been compromised and seen.
09:20.895 --> 09:26.901
[SPEAKER_05]: White lights coming on like that in Afghanistan always meant something was about to happen he told the jury.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He said he thought that the light had been a trigger for him back in his military days and time in Afghanistan.
09:34.471 --> 09:40.457
[SPEAKER_05]: Colin Reeves tried to express his remorse over what he had done before his lawyer's question him on his training.
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[SPEAKER_05]: His garments were read by a reporter from ITV News after his testimony.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I feel ashamed, disgusted with myself at what I've done to have taken Stephen and Jennifer's life while their children slept in bed.
09:52.763 --> 10:00.685
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't imagine the pain and suffering that the friends and family have been suffering, knowing their two boys, knowing they can never see their mum and dad again because of me.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I've always felt ashamed to talk to anyone about my feelings, mental state or thought, because I always thought it was a sign of weakness.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But now I'm more ashamed for not talking or seeking help for what I've done.
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[SPEAKER_01]: His barrister asked, were you trained to kill?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Colin Reeves said, yes.
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[SPEAKER_01]: How were you trained to kill?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Firing weapons, shooting, close quarters combat, bayonets training.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The dagger which was in the frame, were you ever taught to use that?
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[SPEAKER_01]: No.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It would have been used during World War II.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's always been an emblem of the Commandos.
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[SPEAKER_01]: You were trained to kill prior to the twenty first of November, had you ever killed anyone?
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[SPEAKER_01]: No, he replied.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Most often at a criminal trial, the prosecution is trying to prove their case against a defendant.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Prove their guilty of the crime they've been charged with.
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[SPEAKER_05]: For Colin Reeves, his trial was very different.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He had admitted to killing Jennifer and Stephen Chappell, but his plea to murder was not guilty by reason of diminished responsibility.
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[SPEAKER_05]: This immediately flips the burden of proof.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It was now the defense who had to prove their case.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The minister's responsibility is a defense that reduces the charge of murder to one of manslaughter.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It says that an abnormality of the mind was in play during the crimes committed.
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[SPEAKER_05]: And that translated tour reduced responsibility for the defendant's actions.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Colin Reeves had to prove his mind was significantly altered when he murdered the Champels.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He had to prove his PTSD was not only present and severe that it was triggered at the time of these murders, and was the cause of his actions in abnormality of his mind.
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[SPEAKER_05]: That it impaired his ability to reason and think clearly irrational.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Reeves had to prove his PTSD caused him to murder his neighbors in the manner that he did.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The testimony of the psychiatrists would be the focus of this trial.
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[SPEAKER_05]: These medical doctors are trained in analyzing the human mind when it breaks and begins to function abnormally.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Forensic psychiatrists specialize in the criminal mind.
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[SPEAKER_05]: They are experts in the complex and fluid interactions between mental health and criminal behavior and what happens when they collide with each other.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The prosecution called Consultative Forensic psychiatrist Dr. John Sanford to the Stan, a longstanding expert witness who was well respected in his film.
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[SPEAKER_05]: After assessing Reeves, he diagnosed a mild depression, column could function normally, go to work and engage in family life, and his symptoms did not, and his opinion, crossed the threshold to meet diminished responsibility.
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[SPEAKER_05]: For the defense, consult a forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Lucy Bacon, testified about her assessment, conclusions after seeing colon and person and HMP-exitor.
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[SPEAKER_05]: She diagnosed a moderate depression, but did not think he was suffering from complex PTSD.
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[SPEAKER_05]: This is a much more severe form of PTSD that can significantly impair an individual from functioning in their daily lives.
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[SPEAKER_05]: When asked about Colin's state of mind during the murders, Dr. Bacon stated that she thought Colin might have regressed into army mode, both during the killings, and at the police station when he gave his military rank a number.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Both psychiatrists agreed there was mild to moderate depression, and both felt he was able to function in his everyday life with his job and family.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Where they disagreed was if the depression played a part in the murders.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Dr. Bacon thought it was relevant, but not a cause of the killings.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Dr. Sanford felt the depression was not involved in college actions that night at all.
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[SPEAKER_05]: In a blow to the defense, both psychiatrists, including their own expert witness, Dr. Bacon, did not believe the symptoms experienced by Reeves at the time he carried out these murders across the threshold for diminished responsibility to apply.
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[SPEAKER_05]: On June sixteenth, day seven of the trial, Defense Bear's Sir Joanna Martin Q.C.
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[SPEAKER_05]: stood to deliver her statement.
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[SPEAKER_05]: She wanted to highlight to the jury the number of questions that remained about Collins' actions.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Why would a sober man suddenly stab his neighbor to death?
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[SPEAKER_05]: Well, not only their shoulders slept upstairs, while his own shoulders slept next door, why called the police to confess?
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[SPEAKER_05]: How can that possibly be a man who was in control?
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[SPEAKER_05]: Colin Reeves believed wrongly that the only way to protect his family was to stab Jennifer and Steven Chapel.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He wasn't thinking rationally at that moment, was he?
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[SPEAKER_05]: I was stabbing the neighbor's going to protect his family.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He clearly lost his ability to exercise self-control.
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[SPEAKER_05]: His actions were out of character and respected with mental health issues.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Dr. Sanford said Mr. Reeves, quote, just soldiered on.
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[SPEAKER_05]: And literally, he did.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Despite all his training, he couldn't control the deterioration of his mental health.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He needed help.
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[SPEAKER_05]: You can answer yes to the question.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Did Colin Reeve suffered from a recognized medical condition?
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[SPEAKER_05]: And it's certain on the balance of probabilities that it's depression.
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[SPEAKER_05]: What's having an effect on a stability to think clearly?
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[SPEAKER_05]: You know that on the night of November twenty first, after the role with Kaylee, Colin Reeve sat on the stairs crying.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Something shifted in his brain.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It must have done to make him that irrational.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It must be right that his army training kicked in.
15:37.189 --> 15:40.852
[SPEAKER_05]: Adam Feast QC had the final word for the prosecution.
15:41.473 --> 15:47.978
[SPEAKER_05]: He wanted to leave no doubt in the jury's mind of Collins intent that night, and the control he had over his actions.
15:48.868 --> 15:53.389
[SPEAKER_05]: He spoke of how chapel security like could not have been the trigger for colon's actions.
15:54.169 --> 15:59.071
[SPEAKER_05]: As he was already inside their garden with the dagger, at the moment the line activated.
16:00.251 --> 16:06.733
[SPEAKER_05]: He highlighted that there was no record in colon's military file of frontline combat to support his claims of flashbacks.
16:07.353 --> 16:13.355
[SPEAKER_05]: He did serve in Afghanistan guarding prisoners, and there was evidence to support a change in him on his return.
16:14.322 --> 16:17.903
[SPEAKER_05]: As experienced during that tour of duty, he left an impact on him.
16:18.683 --> 16:21.824
[SPEAKER_05]: We don't know what he witnessed or had to do during his time there.
16:22.564 --> 16:26.945
[SPEAKER_05]: But there was no evidence of anything during that tour that could explain his actions and attacks on the chapples.
16:26.965 --> 16:42.349
[SPEAKER_05]: In November, in the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the
16:42.682 --> 16:47.505
[SPEAKER_05]: He believed the motive for these murders was the ongoing tension over the parking row with the chapels.
16:48.606 --> 16:51.508
[SPEAKER_05]: Colin disliked how he felt Jennifer was treating Kaylee.
16:52.293 --> 16:57.596
[SPEAKER_05]: quote, there is no dispute in this case that the defendant armed himself with a deadly weapon.
16:58.137 --> 17:03.220
[SPEAKER_05]: Con the fence into the neighbor's garden, window they're living room and stab them to death.
17:03.940 --> 17:09.623
[SPEAKER_05]: Look at the careful way he removed the dagger from its frame, so it's to not spoil the picture.
17:10.564 --> 17:14.266
[SPEAKER_05]: Look at how he shows a killing weapon, rather than a kitchen knife.
17:14.967 --> 17:19.950
[SPEAKER_05]: Look at the way he stealthily crept across his neighbor's garden, so it's to avoid detection.
17:20.770 --> 17:28.476
[SPEAKER_05]: In the moments after the killing, this defendant clearly did remember what had happened, what he had done, and why he had done it.
17:29.196 --> 17:33.960
[SPEAKER_05]: He killed the Champels for a reason, and he knew what that was, and he said it.
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[SPEAKER_05]: He couldn't let them her torment Kaylee anymore.
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[SPEAKER_05]: In this case, the evidence is not support that the defendant was suffering from diminished responsibility and killing Jennifer and Stephen Chappel.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Whatever issues the experience since leaving the army, a state of mind on November twenty first was not substantially impaired.
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[SPEAKER_05]: At ten a.m.
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[SPEAKER_05]: on the morning of June seventeen two thousand twenty two, the jury were sent out to consider their verdict.
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[SPEAKER_05]: They were turned less than five hours later confirming that a verdict in which they all agreed.
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[SPEAKER_05]: They found Colin Reeves guilty of murder for killing Jennifer and Stephen Chappell.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Reeves admitted killing the chapels, but denied it was murder, blaming post-traumatic stress disorder.
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[SPEAKER_02]: But the jury took just five hours to convict him.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Police say it was one of the most brutal attacks they've ever seen.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Colin Reeves was fully in control of his actions on the night at the twenty first of November when he went rain to get a foot Stephen's house and decided that he was going to kill him.
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[SPEAKER_02]: The families of the chapels said no verdict will bring back our beautiful Jennifer and Stephen.
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[SPEAKER_02]: We will now focus on Jennifer and Stephen's beautiful boys helping them to live the life that Jennifer and Stephen would have wished for them.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Reeves will be sentenced next week for the murder of a young couple whose children now face life without them.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Becky Johnson's Sky News at Bristol Crown Court.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Four days later in the same courtroom, Reeves returned to the dock, escorted by prison guards to receive his sentence.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Before Judge Garnham gave his sentencing remarks, the families of Jennifer and Stephen had the opportunity to provide impact statements.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Six statements were read to the court, each is heartbreaking as the next.
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[SPEAKER_05]: They appealed directly to the judge to keep Colin Reeves behind bars.
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[SPEAKER_05]: To never allow him to cause another family the pain and grief, they were now living.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Steven's sister, who is now bringing up Jennifer and Steven's two young sons, where how she is desperately trying to remain strong for them.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The family decided to tell the boys what had happened, so they understood why their mom and dad had suddenly disappeared.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Jennifer's sister expressed how she now feels frightened in her own home and scared to be out walking on her own.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Two families have been left devastated and utterly heartbroken by the actions of Colin Reeves.
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[SPEAKER_05]: For two young boys, especially, they will now grow up without the parents who adored them.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The judge told Reeves his attack on the couple was unjustified and unprovoked, causing life-long harms to their two young children who had now been left orphans.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Colin Reeves was given a wife sentence to serve a minimum of thirty-eight years.
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[SPEAKER_05]: There's unlikely he will ever be released from prison.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Sometimes humans act on impulse.
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[SPEAKER_05]: A snap decision fueled by heavy emotions that prompt action.
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[SPEAKER_05]: They might regret afterwards.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Sometimes it's the reverse.
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[SPEAKER_05]: A carefully thought-out plan is engineered, nurtured, and then activated, following each step methodically.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The actions of Colin Reeves were sudden, and snapped decisions.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Darm himself enforced his way to the home of his neighbors.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Before they had any time to react, he exploded in a frenzied rage, raining down deadly blows with a dagger, clenched in his hand.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Your home is supposed to be your sanctuary, comfortable and safe, to be invaded and attacked in this way.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It's truly terrifying.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Colin Reeves is a troubled man who chose not to seek help when his mind began to fracture and its emotions were becoming overwhelming.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The outcome was the violent and traumatic loss of two beautiful lives.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Their futures were snatched from them in the cruelest of ways.
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[SPEAKER_05]: A lifetime in prison for the man responsible is justice for Jennifer and Stephen.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Their families and two young sons will continue to keep their memories alive and ensure their wives are never forgotten
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[SPEAKER_00]: or breaking news for you now.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And if one is non-vectoring, Colin Reeves has been jailed at Bristol Crown Court for life with a minimum term of thirty-eight years for the murders of his neighbours, Stephen and Jennifer Chapel at their home.
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[SPEAKER_00]: in Northern Fitzwarren's summer set last November.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You may remember that the former soldier was found guilty at the end of last week of murdering his two neighbors in a violent knife attack as their children slept upstairs.
