Forty years for jealous husband who strangled NHS nurse wife before killing their children

• Latest ITV News report on the father who killed his wife and two children

A father who was convinced his nurse wife was having an affair strangled her and their two young children with a dressing gown cord just days before Christmas, a sentencing hearing has heard.

The court heard how Saju Chelavalel read his two children, aged six and four, bedtime stories before killing them.

Police body cam footage captured the moment officers broke into the family home last December and discovered Chelavalel, 52, clutching a knife.

Despite repeated requests for him to put the knife down, he continued to brandish it whilst shouting “You shoot me”, which prompted officers to taser him.

• Watch police arrest the father who had just murdered his wife and two children

Shortly after, officers discovered the bodies of Chelavalel's wife Anju Asok, 35, who worked for the NHS, and their two children Jeeva Saju, six, and Janvi Saju, four.

Chelavalel has been sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in jail.

Saju Chelavalel admitted the murders in April and appeared at Northampton Crown Court to be sentenced.

The court heard he was convinced his wife was having affairs with her friend’s husband and told police the evidence was on her phone, though none was found.

Chelavalel snapped when his wife criticised his mother. He strangled her with a dressing gown cord at around 10pm on December 14.

He then spent time with the children, drinking a litre of whisky before trying to get them to take a sleeping drug, the court was told.

When that failed, he strangled them with the same cord he had used to kill their mother.

The defendant wept as the court was played an audio recording from his phone which captured the time around when he killed his wife.

On the recording the children can be heard crying and asking for their mum. It is not thought they saw her die but the court heard they would have witnessed the row that preceded the killing.

His Honour Mr Justice Pepperall told Chelavalel: “While you were squeezing the life out of your wife, your children can be heard crying in the background for their mummy. It is clear that they heard what was going on and knew that she was being hurt by you.”Anju Asok was found in one bedroom, while the children were laid out on the bed in another bedroom.The court heard Chelavalel lay down with the children and read them stories before killing them.

Worried neighbours called police when they could not contact anyone by mid morning. The defendant told police he had planned to kill himself as well. 

All three of his victims were found at a flat in Petherton Court, Kettering, on December 15 last year.

Despite the efforts of paramedics and police officers, Ms Asok, a nurse at Kettering General Hospital, died at the scene and the two children later died in hospital.

Her father Arakkal Ashokan, 60, who works in construction in India, said: "When people told me about Anju's death, I could not believe it...I did not believe until I saw the bodies at the airport. There I lost all my control and realised that they are no more in this world."Mr Ashokan said at first he thought his daughter had met with an accident as no-one told him about how she had died.

"Then someone told me that the kids also no more. It was a shock and for a moment, I could not move or breathe and was speechless even my heart stopped and felt like I am no more in this world."

An inquest which opened shortly after the deaths was told the two children were believed to have been strangled, while Ms Asok had died of asphyxia.

Pupils and staff at Kettering Park Infant Academy compiled a book of tributes to the two children.

Det Insp Simon Barnes said: “The staff at the school described the children as kind, caring, gentle, playful, polite and smiley. They are much missed.

“How do you explain to children as young as four that the friends they were playing with only days before are no longer with us? You shouldn’t have to. No one should.

“As an adult, detective and father, I cannot comprehend how Saju Chelavalel could do this and don’t think I ever will."

He added: “There is no amount of time behind bars that will ever be enough for what he did. His primary role as a husband and a father, was to protect his family from harm. They should have been at their safest, at home, with him, but he destroyed that. 

“They leave behind them a devastated family in India, who are struggling to come to terms with what has happened."

He paid tribute to the children's mother, saying she had only wanted to provide the best possible life she could for her children - Jeeva and Janvi. 

Det Insp Barnes said she had been described by her colleagues and friends as very hard working, conscientious, friendly, kind and would be sorely missed. 

She was one to never complain and barely missed a shift.  

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