Roger Panes

Roger Panes (1933–1974), was a British member of the Exclusive branch of the Plymouth Brethren. In 1974 he killed his wife and three children with an axe before hanging himself.[1]

Life

Panes was a cattle dealer in Andover, Hampshire. In November 1973 he was "shut up," or shunned, by the other members of his church, for wrongfully shunning another member. This is a form of 'discipline' promulgated by James Taylor Jnr. and James Symington, leaders of the sect. His family were required to shun him and he was not allowed to sleep with his wife or eat with the family.

In February 1974, Panes was taken to hospital having taken an overdose of tablets, due to the stress of his situation. He recovered, but, on 4 March 1974, he killed his wife Pamela, 39, his two sons Graham, 7, and Adrian, 4, and his daughter Angela, 6, as they slept in their beds. An axe was found covered in blood. He then hanged himself from the stair bannisters with an electrical cable.[2]

A note was also found in the house:

There's never been such a wicked man. This house will have to be left empty or bulldozed. You go to the Brethren. I trust they will take you in. Cry to God for mercy for you all and the dear children. The Lord is coming very soon.[2]

An inquest was held and a jury decided that Panes had killed his family while the "balance of his mind was disturbed."

gollark: I don't know if the people designing electoral systems actually did think of voting systems which are popular now and discard them, but it's not *that* much of a reason to not adopt new ones.
gollark: There are plenty of things in, say, maths, which could have been thought up ages ago, and seem stupidly obvious now, but weren't. Such as modern place value notation.
gollark: Obvious things now may just not have been then.
gollark: Hindsight bias exists.
gollark: As I said, a REALLY bad one would be allocating the vote randomly. This satisfies almost nobody, which makes it a "good compromise" by your definition, but it does that because it has tons of flaws.

See also

David Hendricks – member of the Exclusive Brethren convicted and then acquitted of murdering his wife and three children.

References
  1. `We were strange, we were shunned, but there's little I would change' | Independent on Sunday, The | Find Articles at BNET.com
  2. "Roger Panes - Confirmed Murder/Suicide - WikiPeebia.com - PBCC". WikiPeebia.com. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
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