Kyle Clifford watched Andrew Tate videos before triple murder
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Less than 24 hours before Kyle Clifford committed the triple murder that would leave his ex-girlfriend, Louise Hunt, her sister and mother dead, he searched the internet for misogynistic podcasts.

What was not revealed to the jury – who have now found the former soldier guilty of rape, adding to his previous admissions of murder – was that the 26-year-old had listened to the influencer .

Incandescent with rage that she had ended their 18-month relationship, Clifford began plotting an attack on the Hunt family by researching and buying weapons while watching pornography, including a video of a prison officer having sex with an inmate.

Prosecutors argued “the sort of violent misogyny promoted by Tate is the same type of motivation that … fuelled both the murders and the rape”, the four-day trial heard.

But the judge, Mr Justice Bennathan, ruled that the jury could not hear evidence regarding the killer’s interest in Tate, saying it was “deeply prejudicial” to his rape trial because the influencer was “almost a poster boy for misogynists”.

He told the court: “It may well be that one who takes a close interest in Tate, other than law enforcement officials, could be seen as a misogynist.” But he conceded he could see the “potential relevance” of the material.

On Thursday, Clifford was found guilty of raping Louise before murdering her with a crossbow at her family home in Bushey, Hertfordshire, on 9 July last year. He admitted the murders of Louise, her sister, Hannah, 28, and their mother, Carol, 61, at an earlier hearing, but denied rape. The women were the wife and daughters of the BBC racing commentator John Hunt.

The trial heard that Clifford was a man who sought women’s admiration and did not like to be told “no” by them. He joined the dating website Hinge on the day Louise ended their relationship after confiding in friends that he had a nasty temper and behaved in an aggressive manner.

It can now be revealed that one of the reasons Louise and her friends turned against Clifford was because he played them a Tate video involving animals being harmed which he found “funny”.

“That’s one of the reasons they indicated a distaste for him,” DCI Nick Gardner from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire major crime unit, said at a press briefing.

“There were comments that he would make about violence being OK and quite sort of macho comments of a road rage incident where he’s cut up and he finds it entirely OK to get out his car and berate this individual. He’s telling people these stories, that’s where Louise kind of decides he’s not the man for me, that he’s not the man I thought he was.”

The prosecutor, Alison Morgan KC, had argued that the material Clifford was searching, including pornography, was important because it showed “how he views women and why sexualised violence is an important part of the attack”.

In legal argument in the absence of the jury, she said: “The fact is that on any sensible view, Andrew Tate, back in 2024 and now, was a widely known misogynist, and that is what the defendant is searching for less than 24 hours before he will try to get into the Hunt family home. He was searching for the Andrew Tate podcast.”

In his ruling, the judge said: “The prosecution suggest the sort of violent misogyny promoted by Tate is the same type of motivation that, on their case, fuelled both the murders and the rape. The defence submit this material has too vague a link and it  far too prejudicial.”

On Thursday, four British women who are suing Tate called on social media companies to remove the influencer from their platforms.

In a statement published through their lawyers, the women said: “Hearing that Kyle Clifford watched videos of Andrew Tate in the lead up to his murders of his ex-girlfriend, her mother and sister, is deeply upsetting to us, but sadly not surprising.

“This should be a wake-up call for all the social media companies who are continuing to platform Tate and his dangerous messages. These companies should take immediate steps to remove Andrew Tate from their platforms, rather than continue to reap enormous profits from his hateful content.”

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