BBC racing commentator John Hunt sent a heartbreaking text asking his daughter if everything was ok before she was murdered by crossbow triple killer Kyle Clifford.   

The broadcaster messaged his 25-year-old daughter Louise minutes before her ex-boyfriend Clifford murdered her and her sister with a crossbow and their mother with a butcher’s knife.

Clifford had entered the family home in the quiet cul-de-sac of Ashlyn Close in Bushey, Hertfordshire, by deceiving 61-year-old Carol Hunt, Mr Hunt’s wife, before stabbing her to death in a ‘brutal knife attack’.

The 26-year-old then restrained Louise with duct tape around her wrists and ankles and is believed to have gagged her to stop her screams before allegedly raping her during a two-and-a-half-hour ordeal.

It was during this time that Clifford sent a text posing as Louise asking her father, who was working at a race meeting: ‘What time are you home?’

Mr Hunt later responded: ‘Late, I’m afraid. Everything okay, sweetness?’

The defendant then replied: ‘Just want to check – the races on Saturday start a little later than usual. I think it’s 4.30pm-7.30pm. Then there’s a famous DJ after racing. Is that sounding okay?’

Clifford has admitted murdering the three women, as well as the possession of two weapons, namely an MXT-405 compound crossbow and a ten-inch scimitar knife. He has also pleaded guilty to the false imprisonment of Louise but denies raping her.

Kyle Clifford, 26, from Enfield, has admitted murdering the family of BBC racing commentator John Hunt in July last year

Louise Hunt (pictured), who was formerly in a relationship with Clifford, was killed alongside her mother and sister in the crossbow attack in Bushey

John Hunt is pictured with his wife Carol, who was killed alongside two of their two daughters

Dashcam footage was also played to the jury today showing Clifford calmly driving towards his victims’ house on the day of his bloody attack.

The ex-soldier set out from his home in Enfield, north London, in his Seat Ibiza and travelled the 20 miles to the family’s house. 

The dashcam footage from Clifford’s car shows him making the fateful journey at 1.08pm barely an hour before the attacks.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC told Cambridge Crown Court: ‘He would have had all the items needed for the attack.’

It also showed him pulling up in a road near the quiet cul-de-sac where the family lived and spending a minute going through his boot, using an umbrella to shelter from heavy rain.

Half-an-hour later the carnage would begin when he arrived at his victim’s house.

Other footage viewed by the jury today showed Clifford striding around a local gym on July 5 during an 80-minute workout.

Ms Morgan has said how the alleged rape was a ‘violent, sexual act of spite’ after Louise ended her affair with Clifford, who had recently lost his job at a catering firm.

Brave Hannah Hunt called 999 during the attacks and was still alive when police arrived at the home in Bushey, but later died from her wounds

Footage showed to the jury of Kyle Clifford near the Hunt’s family home in Bushey

The dashcam footage from Clifford’s car shows him arriving at the house in Bushey

It also showed him pulling up in a road near the quiet cul-de-sac where the family lived and spending a minute going through his boot, using an umbrella to shelter from heavy rain 

Jurors today heard audio picked up from a doorbell camera of Clifford – who had allegedly had secret relationships with two women while dating Louise – engaging Carol in conversation at her home. 

He told her: ‘I’m, er, dropping off some of Louise’s stuff.’

Once inside, he stabbed her with the knife, then waited for Louise, 25, who was working in a pod in the garden where she ran a dog grooming business.

When she entered the house, he restrained her with duct tape around her wrists and ankles and is believed to have gagged her to stop her screams before allegedly raping her during a two-and-a-half-hour ordeal.

He then shot her in the chest with a crossbow, with the prosecution saying a ‘whooshing’ sound recorded on the security system was the sound of the bolt being released.

Louise’s beautician sister, Hannah, 28, arrived moments later and went upstairs without realising what had happened.

She was heard to say ‘Kyle, I swear to god…’ and seconds later she sent a text message to her partner, Alex Klein, saying: ‘Kyle here. Police now. He’s tying us up.’

Two minutes later there was a loud ‘thud’, believed to be the firing of another crossbow bolt. 

In other CCTV footage, Clifford walks into a garden centre in Enfield, north London, just before 10am

Clifford seen strolling around a garden centre in Enfield, north London, on the morning of the murders

Hannah managed to call 999 and identified the intruder as Clifford, who has not been in court and is being tried in his absence. 

Emergency services arrived at 7.10pm to find her ‘struggling for life’ near the front door and were unable to save her. Louise and Carol were already dead.

Clifford left the scene in his car after the murders and was found hiding in Lavender Hill Cemetery, near his home in Enfield, north London, the following day.

He shot himself with the crossbow as officers approached and was in hospital for more than two months. He is now paralysed from the chest down.

He told police during an interview: ‘I’m sorry… what I did was atrocious.’

Louise’s friends and family considered Clifford ‘disrespectful, rude and arrogant’ and spoke of his ‘nasty temper’, the court has been told.

The relationship finally imploded during a friend’s wedding in Scarborough on June 23, jurors were told, after the defendant ‘implied that he had slept with a number of people’ and made ‘patronising comments’ about Louise’s oven cooking.

She texted him to say they were over when they returned and he appeared to accept her decision. But later that day, he allegedly messaged: ‘It brings me to tears, that all of that is being thrown out of the window… I honestly can’t think of life without you.’

Clifford seen on CCTV inside Ignite Gym just after 11am before he carried out the three brutal killings

Clifford can be seen in the footage casually working out in the gym on the day he killed three women

Clifford’s attempts to ‘rekindle’ the relationship were ‘rebuffed’ and Ms Morgan said he then ‘carefully planned and executed the attack’, adding: ‘This rejection angered the defendant. 

‘He was angry at Louise but also at the Hunt family generally, as he correctly assumed that friends and family members had advised Louise to end the relationship with him.’

He visited shops or made purchases online of the crossbow, knife, petrol cans, rope and duct tape before checking Mr Hunt was at work on the day of the attack and heading to the house.

Opening the case yesterday, Ms Morgan said: ‘The prosecution alleges that the defendant raped Louise Hunt.

‘It was a violent, sexual, act of spite before he then killed her. You will have to determine that allegation against him.’

Friends and family of the three women struggled to maintain their composure as harrowing footage and audio recordings were played in court.

One woman left the room in tears when the doorstep conversation between Clifford and Carol was overheard.

Another person appeared to moan sorrowfully at audio of the ‘whooshing’ noise caused when the crossbow was fired at Louise.

The trial continues.