Father, 52, pleads guilty to murdering NHS nurse and her children

Husband, 52, pleads guilty to murdering his NHS nurse wife, 35, and their two children aged six and four

• The father said he ‘didn’t know what happened to his children’ but ‘pled guilty’ 

Triple-killer Saju Chelavalel, 52, has pleaded guilty at Northampton Crown Court to the murders of NHS nurse Anju Ashok and her children, six-year-old Jeeva Saju and Janvi Saju, aged four. 

The two children died after being found with serious injuries at a property in Kettering, Northamptonshire, on December 15 last year alongside their mother – who died at the scene. 

Chelavalel was then arrested  by police at the same house after they were called to reports three people had been injured and charged with all three murders days later. 

A forensic post-mortem examination at Leicester Royal Infirmary concluded that all three died of asphyxiation, but at the opening of the inquests into their deaths a coroner said the medical cause of death for the children had been listed as strangulation, while Ms Ashok died of asphyxia.

 Saju Chelavalel pleaded guilty to all three murders at Northampton Crown Court

Janvi Saju, 4, and her mother Anju Ashok, 35, were killed after being asphyxiated, an inquest heard

Jeeva Saju, 6, was strangled to death along with his sister in December, the inquest heard 

The case against Saju Chelavalel was not opened after he pleaded guilty to three counts of murder during a 12-minute hearing.

Assisted by an interpreter in the dock, Chelavalel answered ‘guilty’ to two of the counts he faced, but in relation to the charge of murdering Jeeva he replied: ‘I don’t know what happened to the children, but I plead guilty.’

Adjourning the case until July 3, Judge David Herbert KC said: ‘There can only be one sentence in law, namely a life sentence, but the judge dealing with your case on that day will have to set the appropriate minimum term.’

It’s thought that the tragic family travelled to the UK from Kerala in India only months before the triple murder with Mrs Ashok becoming an NHS nurse last September.

Northamptonshire Police had previously confirmed that Ms Ashok worked as a nurse at Kettering General Hospital. 

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