Antiques dealer admitted to killing his daughter before murder trial
Reports state that a rich antiques dealer strangled his seven-year-old daughter to death with a nightgown belt and has pleaded guilty to the murder on April 25.
In what is being called a "surprise move", the Telegraph reported that Robert Peters admitted to the crime at the trial that took place in the Old Bailey in London. The trial went into its third day on April 25 and this was the same day that Krittiya Promsat, the dead girl's mother, was going to testify against Peters.
Fifty-six-year-old Peters waited until Promsat had left the million-dollar family home in Wimbledon on November 3 before he woke his daughter up and then strangled her for 30 minutes. He immediately called the police but the child died the next day even though she was taken to the hospital. Fatal brain damage had taken Sophia's life.
He told the police: "There’s been a murder." He then told the authorities that a child had been murdered and when the cops asked him who did it, he simply answered: "I have."
After Peters was arrested, he told a nurse that he had tried to kill himself twice in 2017. He also told her that he had considered for a few weeks about murdering his wife and daughter so that the two of them could be "spared the pain and upset when he became bankrupt." It was later revealed in the court that he was not in any debt.
Earlier on in the year, Peters had tried to plead guilty to the charges of manslaughter but he denied murdering his daughter. He said he was depressed and was hearing voices at that time. The plea for manslaughter was rejected. The case went into trial in April.
All Peters did was nod as he admitted to strangling his daughter to death. One of the relatives who was in court kept asking him "Why?" as he was being led out of the courtroom.
The presiding judge, Andrew Edis, told the jurors to make a guilty verdict.
He said: "His guilty plea is the clearest evidence there could be of his guilt and in those circumstances the taking of a verdict from you is a necessary step, but it is a formal step."
Peters has been remanded and is waiting for his sentence to take place on April 30.