The Bluestone family murders occurred in

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

on 28 August 2001. Police officer Karl Bluestone murdered his wife Jill and two of the couple's children with a claw hammer before killing himself in the garage. The two oldest children survived the attack.

Events

Karl Bluestone joined

Kent Police Kent Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the and approximately 1.8 million inhabitants of Kent, a county in the south east of England. History On 14 January 1857, a 222-strong 'Kent County Constabulary' was formed u ...

in 1987. He had a history of domestic violence, had accused his wife of having an affair before the murders, and had bugged her car with a listening device. In June 1999, he was arrested for injuring one of his children when he threw a cup across the room. His wife Jill had run to call neighbours for help. On 28 August 2001, seven-year-old Jessica Bluestone ran to neighbours shouting "my daddy is trying to hurt me." The police were called, and they arrived to the property, 92 Marling Way, in the Riverview Park area at 10pm, where they found the bludgeoned body of Jill Bluestone Jill had suffered 30 blows to the head. The couple's three-year-old son, Henry was found dead in his cot. Karl Bluestone was found hanging in the garage at the end of the garden. The family's three other children were taken to the

Darent Valley Hospital Darent Valley Hospital is a 478-bed, acute district general hospital in Dartford, Kent, England. The hospital has an Emergency Department. The hospital is managed by the Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust. History The hospital, which was built to ...

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary, is Thurrock in ...

, where 18-month-old Chandler died of his injuries. The couple's eight-year-old son, Jack, was transferred to London's Kings College Hospital with severe injuries. Victims * Jill Bluestone, 31 * Henry Bluestone, 3 * Chandler Bluestone, 1 The funerals of Jill Bluestone and her two sons were held at

Nunthorpe Nunthorpe is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire, England. It is part of the historic county of Yorkshire, North Riding. It is near to the village of Great Ayton and formerly part of the Ayton ancient ...

Methodist Church in

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

on 7 September 2001. Karl was given a separate burial.

Inquest

The November 2001 inquest revealed that Bluestone attacked his family after his wife told him that she was leaving and taking the children with her.

Parliament

The case was brought up in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

on 19 July 2002.

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

MP for

Luton South Luton South is a constituency in Bedfordshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Rachel Hopkins, a member of the Labour Party. History This seat was created in 1983, primarily from the former seat of Luton ...

Margaret Moran Margaret Mary Moran (born 24 April 1955) is a former Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. Moran was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Luton South from the 1997 general election to 2010. In November 2012, jurors at Southwark Crown Cou ...

asked

Minister of State for Policing The Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire is a ministerial position held at the Home Office in the Government of the United Kingdom. Holders of this office have previously held additional responsibilities such as for security, counter-t ...

John Denham John Denham may refer to: * John Denham (died 1556 or later), English MP for Shaftesbury * John Denham (judge), (1559–1639), father of the poet below, and one of the Ship Money judges * John Denham (poet) (1615–1669), English poet * John Denham ...

how many domestic violence incidents

had recorded. The minister confirmed that four incidents had been recorded but no disciplinary action was undertaken in relation to any of them.

Media coverage

Jeanette Winterson Jeanette Winterson (born 27 August 1959) is an English writer. Her first book, '' Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'', was a semi-autobiographical novel about a sensitive teenage girl rebelling against convention. Other novels explore gender pola ...

criticised the media coverage of the case.

References

{{Reflist August 2001 events in the United Kingdom 2001 deaths 2000s in Kent 2001 murders in the United Kingdom Familicides Murder in Kent August 2001 crimes Child murder in England Murder–suicides in the United Kingdom History of Gravesend, Kent Incidents of domestic violence Kent Police officers Hammer assaults