Violence triggers family nightmare

collapsed at Lewes Crown Court after his defence successfully argued he had no case to answer. Jason Woodward reports.

FOR the Ayres family the last ten months have been a living hell.

In one night of sudden and horrific violence, their comfortable and quiet life was ripped apart leaving three people badly beaten and the family in limbo.

After surviving a vicious hammer attack carried out by their eldest son's best friend, parents Robert, 56, and Vivienne, 55, were then put through the added torment of seeing their youngest son accused of plotting their deaths.

The couple have stood by Ian throughout the ordeal, never doubting his innocence.

Not only did they put up his bail worth £60,000 but they continued to provide their son with a home and all the support he needed through the months leading up to his trial.

Personality

In court it was their evidence which proved crucial in leading to the collapse of the case against him.

Giving evidence Mr Ayres told the jury: "If we had any suspicion that he was involved in these crimes we couldn't have had him at home all this time. We couldn't have slept at night."

The nightmare may have begun on April 30 last year but the seeds of the violence were sown long before.

Neil Campbell has already pleaded guilty to attempting to murder Mrs Ayres and wounding Mr Ayres with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

At 6ft 8ins tall, Campbell is a large figure with a large personality.

Educated and highly articulate, Campbell proved to be a strong influence on the two Ayres brothers and, just as Mr and Mrs Ayres feared, it was to prove a bad influence.

Motivated by greed for money, Campbell first tried to kill three members of the family.

When the plan failed, he pointed the finger at one of his victims, claiming they were part of his plot.

Campbell, now aged 23, met the older son Neil five years ago when the two of them were working for an advertising firm in Brighton.

The two Neils started sharing a lift into work each day and soon became firm friends.

In court, the jury heard evidence of arguments between the parents and two sons but there was nothing to indicate these were anything more than normal family disagreements.

On the outside all appeared normal. Mr Ayres, a chartered accountant based in Worthing, had provided well for his family.

Ian, a qualified chef, had previously lived and worked in London and Portsmouth although at the time of incident he was living back with his parents.

He was in the middle of an access course in environmental life sciences at Brighton College of Technology, prior to going to university.

His brother Neil, 25, had spent the last four years at John Moore's University in Liverpool reading business statistical analysis.

Their parents appeared happy to help them out financially, buying a mobile phone for Neil when he went to university and a car for Ian on his 21st birthday.

Both boys had inherited £10,000 from their grandfather and both appeared to be on the right course.

However the jury heard that all was not well within the family.

In an interview he gave to police after the attack, Ian said he had heard Campbell and his brother often discussing the family money, believed to amount to several hundred thousand pounds.

Campbell claimed his plan to murder the Ayres formed just a week before the attack at a time when he was under great stress and had massively increased his drug intake.

On the day of the attack itself, he had consumed vast quantities of cannabis and amphetamines.

He had just lost his job, as had his stepfather, and he was sinking into heavy depression.

He claimed the plan was a "twisted fantasy" which became reality and had not been planned consciously.

Hours before the attack, he rang Neil Ayres' mobile and left his phone off to the hook as a alibi, telling Neil he was planning to rob some shops in the village.

He told the court the plan was to kill Ian and then carry his prostrate body into his parents' house, claiming he had been the victim of a road-rage incident. Once inside, he would kill both Mr and Mrs Ayres before putting the trainers he was wearing on Ian's feet and leaving the hammer with Ian's fingerprints on.

He would then take Mr Ayres' shotgun and blow Ian's head off making it look as if the youngest son had killed his parents before committing suicide.

Things only went wrong when he realised he did not have the conviction to see the assaults through to the end. For whatever reason, Campbell abandoned both the attack on Ian Ayres and then on his parents.

The first blow struck that evening was the one against Ian in the car.

When Ian failed to immediately fall under that blow, and simply turned round to ask what his friend thought he was doing, Campbell caved in and told him of the plan.

Whisky

The jury heard it was at this point that the plan changed and Campbell suggested Ian come with him to the house and help him.

Campbell claimed Ian agreed to help, but Ian told police he only went along with the plans out of fear for his own safety.

But when it came to attacking Mr and Mrs Ayres again, Campbell's nerve failed.

While Mr Ayres attended to his son's head wound in the bathroom Mrs Ayres went to fetch a bottle of whisky. She told the court Campbell grabbed the bottle from her and smashed it over her head. When she failed to fall under the first blow he attacked her repeatedly with the meat hammer until she fell. Campbell said in court after the first hammer blow against Mrs Ayres he woke up out of his fantasy.

In court he said: "I could not kill them because I could not mentally. I found myself realising this was a real incident and after that I was not able to hit anybody anymore."

Throughout the attack, Ayres stayed in the bathroom, the court heard. He blamed his inaction on fear, on his injury, and on the feeling of helplessness.

His parents backed Ian's claim that a nasty blow to the head was enough to temporarily rob him of his sense. But it was this inaction which aroused suspicion that led him being brought to court.

Yesterday as he acquitted Ian, Judge Anthony Scott-Gall said his behaviour during the attack did not mean he was guilty but "simply suggests he was looking after number one and could not give a damn about what was happening to his parents".

Afterwards, Det Sgt Gary Tutt admitted it was "one of the most difficult cases I have ever had to investigate. There was some very sensitive family issues and we had to work round those."

Today Ian is free and, surrounded by his family, begins the task of piecing his life back together.

As Mr Ayres said outside court: "We're just glad it's all over."

But police have not closed the case. They say important questions still needed to be answered.

Det Sgt Tutt said: "We are keen to speak to anyone who has got information. It would be wrong of us to close our minds to anything."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.