Girl's frantic 911 call as father kills cheating wife
by CHRIS BROOKE, Daily Mail
A wealthy solicitor stabbed his wife to death in front of their young children after she admitted having an affair
with her karate instructor.
Their 14-year-old daughter's desperate attempts to save her mother's life were captured in a recording of a
traumatic 999 call, which was played to a court yesterday.
Les Humes 'freaked out' when his wife Madeleine told him their marriage was over and she was replacing him
in the £250,000 family home with her secret lover.
The 39-year-old lawyer attacked her with a kitchen knife and then stabbed himself, Sheffield Crown Court was
told.
But when he realised his 36-year-old wife had survived, he followed her into the dining room and stabbed her
through the heart as she lay collapsed on the floor.
The fatal wounds were inflicted as the eldest of his four children made her frantic 999 call. Laura Humes is
heard shouting 'don't you dare' and 'get off, you bastard' to her father in a graphic recording of the emergency
call.
Despite the mayhem around her, Laura tried to give her dying mother the kiss of life, while her 12-year-old
brother Michael tended to Humes, who tried in vain to commit suicide.
Moments later, amid the chaos, their two-year-old sister Caitlin walked in to witness the bloodbath after hearing
screams. The other child, seven-year-old Lizzie, hid under a chair sobbing as the horror unfolded.
Yesterday Humes, of Wickersley, near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, was jailed for seven years after admitting
manslaughter on the grounds of provocation. He was told he could apply for parole in three years.
Mr Justice Gage said the death of their mother must have been 'a truly terrible event' for the children to witness.
'I have no doubt they will bear the emotional scars all their days,' he said.
The court heard how the couple met as students and married in 1986. Humes worked long hours as a senior
partner in a law firm, but they were regarded as having a 'model marriage'.
Peter Kelson QC, prosecuting said Mrs Humes stunned her husband when she told him days before Christmas
that she wanted him to leave the home. She said he had been spending too much time at work.
Humes was said to be devastated, but on Boxing Day accepted his wife's wish for 'space to think things
through'. He moved into a motel, where he spent several sleepless nights.
But he was determined to fight to save the marriage and discussed reducing his workload with a colleague.
Mrs Humes had become 'obsessed' with karate and practised it three nights a week at a club. Humes knew she
had a 'close association' with her instructor Michael Smith, but had no idea anything inappropriate was going
on.
In fact the mother-of-four had been having an affair with her 50-year-old teacher for three months. Mr Smith
told police they fell 'very much in love' and began a sexual relationship.
Details of the affair came out on December 30 last year when Humes went to the family home to see his
children shortly before going away to stay with relatives.
He later told police how his wife said: 'I've got something to say to you.' Humes told her he 'didn't want to hear
it' and added: 'Please, I'm begging you, just let me go.'
But Mrs Humes said: 'I don't love you.' Then she confessed: 'Mick Smith has got feelings for me and I have got
feelings for him big style. By the time you get back I will have slept him.'
Humes told detectives: 'That's when I just lost it.' He said a 'red mist' came over him and he began 'bellowing
like a bull'.
He said he stabbed his wife in the kitchen and then again when she went to phone for help. In all, Mrs Humes
suffered eight stab wounds.
Laura, who was making the 999 call as her mother was killed, told police she had been watching television with
her two sisters when she heard screams and went to investigate. She saw her mother run out of the kitchen and
her father stabbing himself in the chest. 'There was blood all over the floor and my Mum went, "Just go and
phone 999".
'My Mum was trying to get the knife off him. My Mum got stabbed in the chest and collapsed in the dining
room.
'I was trying to get the knife off my Dad, he said he wanted to die. He said it was because my Mum told him she
loved someone else. Then he went into the music room and stabbed himself in the stomach.
'I told my brother to stop him doing anything to himself. I went to my Mum but she couldn't breathe properly
and she told us how she loved us all.'
Laura bravely gave her mother the kiss of life, but realised she was not breathing and was going to die.
The teenager said her father got up and went back into the kitchen, followed by Michael. Moments later the
ambulance crew arrived.
Robert Smith QC, defending, said Humes 'deeply loved' his wife and children and 'committed acts entirely out
of character in a moment of profound despair'. He said Mrs Humes's revelations of her cheating triggered a
jealous rage.
Mr Smith said Humes continued to have a good relationship with his children. He was full of remorse and 'has
been rendered a shadow of his former self'.
Outside court Mrs Humes's family attacked the decision not to put Humes on trial for murder and described his
sentence as 'lenient'.