Janine Mundy murder: Dad asked sons to stage death as 'suicide'
- Published
Dale Barrett reveals how his father told him to help cover up his mother's murder
The son of a murdered woman has described the moment his father tried to force him and his brother to help stage her death as a suicide.
Dale Barrett, now 23, was speaking for the first time about seeing his father strangle Janine Mundy, 34, in 2003.
Anthony Wayne Mundy was given a life sentence for murder but will be considered for parole later this year.
Mr Barrett said he was "haunted" by witnessing the killing at their family home in Camborne, Cornwall.
He was eight years old when he and his brother, 10, saw their father, then aged 39, strangling their mother after being woken by her screams on 27 June.
After the killing, Mundy dressed his wife and used a climbing rope to suspend her body over the stairwell.
Janine Mundy was strangled by her husband Anthony Wayne Mundy in 2003
"The picture I have got in my head is when I walked down the stairs and she was hung and she had all bruising (on her neck)," said Mr Barrett.
"He asked us for help because he just wanted to stage it as a suicide... he asked us to help lift the body over the stairwell to hang her. We said no."
Mr Barrett said he hated his father who had "destroyed my whole family".
Mundy had been arrested on suspicion of attempting to drown his wife in the bath just 16 days before he killed her.
Mrs Mundy was left so frightened she had the house locks changed and an alarm installed.
Mundy was released on police bail and then followed a step-by-step plan, breaking into the house, deactivating the alarm and killing Mrs Mundy.
Janine Mundy's husband was arrested for attacking her just 16 days before her death
Mr Barrett said he had a "normal" childhood before the murder and had "never seen any abuse or any shouting".
However, after the first attack he remembered being in a car with his mother who was wearing only her bra and pants and he could see she was "bruised and beaten".
He was "shocked" when she told him what had happened.
Following her death, Mrs Mundy's parents received an apology from Devon and Cornwall Police who admitted more could have been done to protect her.
Her parents also helped to set up J9, a domestic abuse initiative aimed at helping and raising awareness of victims of abuse.
Mrs Mundy was killed in front of her sons who were aged eight and ten
Mr Barrett described his mother as "a bit crazy, smiley, bubbly and really chatty" and said there had been a lot of laughter in their lives.
"Within a matter of minutes we lost both our parents so we went from quite a normal life to nothing," he added.