TEARS OF A KILLER
Watch moment pilot Robert Brown breaks down and says it’s a ‘horrible mess’ after confessing to killing Joanna Simpson
Brand new footage reveals his reaction realising she was dead
KILLER Robert Brown is seen breaking down in a previously unseen police interview after confessing to killing his wife.
Brown beat and stabbed Joanna Simpson, 46, to death at their home before burying her body in a pre-dug grave in Windsor Great Park.
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He stabbed her at least 14 times with a claw hammer during the vile act in October 2010, while their two young children were in an adjacent room.
Brown, a former British Airways pilot, was pleaded guilty in 2011 to manslaughter by diminished responsibility as the result of him having an adjustment disorder.
The new footage comes in episode two of ITV's The British Airways Killer series.
In it, Brown is seen having a statement read out by his solicitor confessing to losing control and pushing Joanna and admitting he "panicked" when he discovered she was dead.
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Brown is emotional during the interview, putting his head on the interview room table after saying: "It's a horrible mess, I'm not proud of myself."
He was set to be released in November, halfway through his 26-year sentence.
But Justice Secretary Alex Chalk used “powers to detain” to keep him behind bars.
A judicial review was since opened at London's High Court on February 14 about his jailing.
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A judge yesterday ruled against his release.
Haunting video from killer pilot Robert Brown’s wedding to Joanna Simpson reveals chilling words before bludgeoning wife
The new episode also features a victim impact statement from the couple's children.
Son Alex's statement is read aloud by an actor and reads: "For the last 13 years I have not spoken about my thoughts on my father’s release.
"I am most of all concerned for my maternal grandparents who cannot defend themselves.
"I do not want to live with this perpetual fear that I’ll lose yet more of my close family. I never want to see my father again, but if he is released now then that power is entirely in his hands."
Joanna's mother Diana Parkes reads aloud the statement from daughter Katie, which was written when she was nine years old, shortly after the killing.
Diana said: "Katie aged nine wrote this. 'Dear judges, my father killed my mummy and I am scared if he comes out of jail too soon he might come back and hurt me because I heard him killing my mummy. He is the most evillest man I have ever known and I wish he wasn’t my father.'"
Katie said she heard the “bang, bang, bang” of the attack as she and her brother Alex hid in the playroom while her parents were in the kitchen of their home.
In the documentary Diana reveals she and the children actually returned to the house where Brown killed Joanna after the police had finished collecting evidence there.
She admitted she found it comforting: "And I said to them, 'But I’ll come and live down here with you, you can keep on going to school.'
"And they said, 'No granny, we want to come back to the Isle of Man, we want to come back to you on the Isle of Man.' And that’s what we did.
"But we went back once the police had finished with Tun Cottage - I wanted to go back to the house and I went and slept in Jo’s bed with all her linen, and she’d had a terrible cold and her paracetamol and a glass beside the bed. And…I found it comforting."
Diana also reveals that she and the children returned to the wooded location where Joanna's body was found in Windsor Great Park, in a grave dug by Brown.
He is the most evillest man I have ever known and I wish he wasn’t my father
Katie Brown (read by Diana Parkes)
Diana said: "I said to the children, 'would you like to go and see where mummy was found?' And they both said they would, so I said, 'We’ll go and lay some flowers shall we?'
"And the children said 'Ooh we know this place, we’ve got a den nearby.'"
Joanna's friend Hetti Barkworth-Nanton adds: "He was taking them to those woods in the week before he killed her, that they spent with him."
Brown initially called police the morning after the mother-of-two disappeared from their house in an affluent area of Ascot to report a domestic issue.
When he handed himself in after killing her, Brown initially refused to help police with their missing persons investigation.
But eventually Brown confessed that he had killed Joanna and told officers where to find the body in woods in Windsor Great Park.
The British Airways Killer series tracks the case through the first phone call to the tragic discovery of Joanna's remains in a shallow grave in Windsor Great Park, to his conviction and the consequences.
At his trial, the court was told Brown suffered from an adjustment disorder - and he was cleared of murder.
He admitted the charge of manslaughter by diminished responsibility.
This documentary follows Joanna's family and friends into the political heartland of Westminster as they embark on a high-profile campaign to keep him behind bars.
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In a statement, Brown said that he was sentenced by the court after careful examination of whether or not he was dangerous, and the court found that he was not.
The brand new footage features in the second episode of The British Airways Killer, which airs on ITV1 & ITVX at 9pm on Thursday.
What happened to Joanna Simpson?
On Halloween in 2010, ex-BA pilot Brown killed Joanna, 46, at their family home in Ascot, as their two children played nearby.
Brown hit Joanna 14 times over the head, before placing her body into the boot of his car.
This had followed a sustained period of domestic abuse which included coercive control, isolation, intimidation and severe violence.
Joanna's body was found five days later buried in a pre-dug grave.
The tragic death of the mother-of-two took place just one week before the finalisation of their divorce.
Following her death, the Joanna Simpson Foundation was set up in her memory.
The foundations work is based on her beliefs, values, and the love of her children.
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