Scot driven by ‘superhuman force’ to stab family 112 times

Jason Downie, 20, became obsessed with Chantelle Rowe and launched a frenzied knife attack after she spurned him.

In a crime which shocked Australia, he disembowelled Chantelle and stabbed to death her mother and father, Andrew and Rose, in a bloodbath at their family home in the small town of Kapunda, near Adelaide.

Full details of the triple murder emerged for the first time at the South Australian Supreme Court yesterday, when it was revealed that Downie had raped as well as killed Chantelle, despite the prosecution not seeking a guilty plea to that charge.

Defence counsel Greg Mead QC said Downie’s infatuation with the teenager had turned to resentment and anger and ultimately homicidal rage.

Mr Mead said many would think his “weedy” client – barely over eight stone – would not be capable of a such a crime.

He said: “He unleashed an attack which will not seem possible from someone of his stature. It was as if superhuman forces were unleashed within him.

“Obviously, he went completely beserk that night. He seems to have lost all control.”

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Stephen Pallaras, told the court that Downie had been “sexually obsessed” with Chantelle and jealous of his friend who was dating her.

Mr Pallaras said Downie broke into the Rowe home on 8 November 2010, killed her father, then her mother and then raped Chantelle and stabbed her to death.

He said Downie stabbed Mr Rowe at least 29 times, Chantelle more than 33 times and her mother more than 50 times, even inflicting stab wounds while Mrs Rowe was crawling on her hands and knees.

Mr Pallaras said: “It is no exaggeration to say that the hallway and floors throughout the house were covered in blood.

“It appears from the position of the bodies of Andrew and Rose Rowe and the positioning of their blood that, even after he had stabbed them and attempted to clean up their blood, he went back to them and stabbed them again.”

Mr Pallaras said that after the murders, Downie “paid tribute” to the Rowes and consoled Chantelle’s boyfriend – until his DNA led to his arrest.

Mr Pallaras said Downie had lied to everybody involved in the case – police, his friends, his mother and his brother, before his guilty pleas late last year.

Downie, an apprentice mechanic originally from Onthank, Kilmarnock, murdered Chantelle because his feelings for her were unrequited, the prosecutor said.

Mr Pallaras said Downie had re-dressed Chantelle in clean clothes after he had killed her. He was arrested after a week- long manhunt.

Mr Mead said: “He has written a letter of apology to the family of the victims but admits no words will restore the Rowes to their family.”

Sentence was deferred for a month.