Man guilty of double murder

A man who killed a wife and her husband at their home in Newhaven has been found guilty of their murder.  

Derek Martin, 67 and from Brighton, had admitted killing both Josh and Chloe Bashford at their home in Newhaven in June 2023 but had denied murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility. 

On the day of the attack, Martin who was known and close to the victims, went out for breakfast with Chloe, before returning to the couple’s house.  

Martin told police that they had an argument, and he hit her on the head with a hammer before going to the kitchen to retrieve a knife and repeatedly stabbing her. When Josh arrived home, he repeatedly stabbed him and then strangled him. 

Marko Brooke from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “This has been an extremely challenging case to prosecute. 

“Derek Martin’s claim that he had “lost it” when he killed Chloe and Josh did not tie up with the evidence of what happened on that fateful day. Martin waited for Josh to come home and pursued him upstairs when he did, before attacking him. 

“Martin then had the presence of mind to clean up the scene and did everything he could to ensure that Josh and Chloe’s children did not find out what had happened to their parents, before handing himself into police and admitting what he had done. 

“In cases like this, the main evidence comes from expert psychiatrists. It required significant additional enquires to be made to carefully scrutinise the initial position adopted by some of the expert psychiatrists in saying that Martin did have a partial defence of diminished responsibility.  

“This meant that the case has taken a long time to come to trial, and we appreciate the additional distress this has caused to Chloe and Josh’s family and friends. We are tremendously thankful to them for their patience and support during this terrible time and hope that today’s verdicts bring them some small comfort.” 

Building the case 

Martin admitted to killing Josh and Chloe but denied murdering them, claiming diminished responsibility as a partial defence to murder, telling police that he had “just flipped” on the day of the killings. It is for the defendant to prove that this partial defence applies.

Some of the most important evidence came from data from Chloe’s phone, which showed that there was a gap of time in between Chloe being attacked and Josh arriving home. 

Martin also admitted that, after killing the couple, he changed his clothes and tried to clean up the scene. He removed the door handles, so that if the couple’s children returned home, they could not find the bodies of their parents. 

He then took the children out, telling them that their parents had had a row, before messaging a family member to say that he was going to give himself up to police and asking her not to take the children home. 

In total, five psychiatrists provided reports on Martin. Three said a partial defence was available to him. One said it may be available, but it would be for a jury to decide, and the other said he did not have grounds for a partial defence, as his actions at the time of the killings and in accounts to medical staff did not correlate with someone whose recognised medical condition impacted their ability to exercise self-control. 

Having heard all the evidence, the jury rejected Martin’s claim of diminished responsibility and convicted him of murder.