Peter Nash, of Great Waldingfield near Sudbury, jailed for life after killing wife Jillu and 12-year-old daughter Louise

A man has been jailed for life after he strangled his wife and stabbed his disabled daughter to death at their family home.

Peter Nash, 47, was sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in jail at Ipswich Crown Court today after he was found guilty of killing his wife Jillu Nash, 44, and their 12-year-old daughter, Louise, before attempting to take his own life, at their Great Waldingfield home in September last year.

Emergency services arrived at the scene on the morning of September 8 before Nash could take his own life, and he was hospitalised with serious injuries. He was later formally arrested and charged over the killings.

During his trial Nash admitted to strangling Jillu at their Heath Estate home following an argument over an affair she was having, and said he then stabbed Louise to death, before attempting to take his own life.

During closing statements, Nash, who represented himself, told the court he believed he was acting on 'logic' at the time of the killings and said: "She decided when she tresspassed and she chose her own outcome."

In an earlier hearing, when asked if he had intended to kill his wife when he strangled her, Nash said: "Not begging to kill her, no. It was to punish. To serve punishment. It was to punish for the trespass."

When pressed, Nash acknowledged that the intended ‘punishment’ was death, and said his decision to kill his severely autistic daughter was motivated by his mistrust of the social services.

The trial also heard evidence from Dr Bohdan Solomka, a psychiatrist who interviewed Nash a month after the incident, who said the defendant had confessed the killings to him.

The jury was shown video footage of Nash referring to his 12-year-old daughter Louise, who had autism and global developmental delay, as his 'property' as well as an email exchange from Nash to Louise's school where he called himself her 'owner'.

On Friday, they returned a guilty verdict on both counts of murder.