Phillip Austin

Phillip Austin (born 14 February 1969 in Northampton, England) is a British convicted triple murderer. During the course of a day in July 2000, Austin killed his wife Claire Quinn (aged 31), their two children, Kieren (aged 8) and Jade (aged 7), and two dogs. In March 2001, Austin was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences. The presiding judge described Austin's family annihilation as "beyond the bounds of belief." Phillip Austin was 31 years old when he murdered his family.

Arrest and sentencing During the week in which the murders remained undiscovered, Austin spent the week on the run, in Blackpool and Scarborough.

When asked what caused him to attack his wife, Austin told detectives, "She started hassling me and arguing and that. I just turned on her." When asked his reasons for murdering his children, he stated, "It sort of came to me that I had killed her so I went upstairs and killed my children." After applying for parole in 2021, his move to an open prison was refused by the Parole Board for England and Wales. In 2023, the justice secretary again overruled the parole board's recommendation for a move to an open prison. His case is next up for review in 2025.