Robert Brown bludgeoned his estranged wife Joanna Simpson to death when he ‘lost control’ amid their bitter divorce battle.
The ex-British Airways captain was put behind bars after being sensationally cleared of murder, having admitted to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The killer was due an automatic release from prison in November 2023, but this was blocked by the Lord Chancellor after campaigning by Ms Simpson’s friends and family.
Before he brutally ended her life, Brown and Joanna, a millionaire who ran her own Bed and Breakfast business, looked like any other ordinary family. The married couple shared two children and lived in a sprawling home in Ascot, Berkshire. But their marriage reached breaking point when Joanna told a friend Brown had held her at knife point.
As examined in the ITV documentary, The British Airways Killer, on Halloween night in 2010, Brown attacked her with a claw hammer and buried her body in a makeshift plastic coffin in a prepared grave. Currently, the killer has served 13 years of a 26-year sentence.
Because Brown was convicted of manslaughter, not murder, he was set to be automatically freed on licence halfway through his sentence in November 2023. But last October, Secretary of State for Justice Alex Chalk confirmed he would use his powers to stop the automatic release and instead get the case reviewed by the Parole Board.
“Joanna Simpson was bludgeoned and buried at the hands of Robert Brown, which left two children without a mother and caused irreparable harm to her family and loved ones,” said Mr Chalk. “I made a commitment to Joanna’s family that I would give this case my closest personal attention.
“Having reviewed all the information available to me, I have blocked Brown’s automatic release and referred this case to the Parole Board using powers we introduced to protect the public from the most dangerous offenders.”
However at a hearing in London earlier this month, Brown’s lawyers argued the referral was unlawful, while the Government says his legal action should be dismissed. Speaking during proceedings, Joanna’s mother Diana – who raised her daughter’s children and led a campaign to block his release from prison with her friend Hetti Barkworth-Nanton – said she would fear for her family’s safety should he get out.
And in a statement for the documentary, Brown’s son Alex, now 23, said he lives in ‘perpetual fear’ over his dad’s possible release. He said: “I am most of all concerned for my maternal grandparents, who cannot defend themselves. I do not want to live with this perpetual fear that I will lose yet more of my close family. I never want to see my father again, but if he is released now then that power is entirely in his hands.”
Heartbreakingly, his daughter Katie also expressed her terror, writing a letter to the judge back in 2011 that was shown in the documentary. It said: “My father killed my Mummy and I’m scared if he comes out of jail too soon he might come back and hurt me because I heard him killing my Mummy. He is the most evillest man I have ever known and I wish he wasn’t my father.”
Brown’s lawyers argued the Parole Board referral was “an obvious attempt to seek to reverse engineer justification for a decision that was in reality prompted and obtained through conscious or unconscious political bias”. They added the risk posed by Brown had not increased and that he had been “subjected to a high-profile campaign through the media and with politicians that has sought to block his release”.
The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) rejected his allegations, arguing Mr Chalk “in no way seeks to ‘go behind’ or ‘disapply’ or ‘fail to respect’ the sentencing court’s decision”. Lawyer Iain Steele, for the Justice Secretary, told the Daily Mail : “The Secretary of State can decide not to release a prisoner on licence if he has reasons to believe he will be dangerous if released.” He added: “His [Brown’s] risk is not manageable … We are dealing with a very dangerous individual.”
Just yesterday, on February 28, Brown’s High Court challenge against the move to block his automatic release from prison was dismissed by Mr Justice Ritchie. For now, Brown remains inside, but a ruling on the decision is expected later this year.
The court heard how on the fateful night of Halloween 2010, Brown became consumed by rage over a prenuptial agreement and believed Joanna had stitched him up. It was claimed he dismissed her offer of a £573,000 settlement and instead wanted her £3.5million home in Ascot.
He bludgeoned Joanna to death in their home as their two young children cowered in the playroom, beating her over the head at least 14 times. The court heard that he attacked his estranged wife after she made him feel like “an idiot”. He said: “I just lost it. I blew up and the next thing I was standing over Jo and blood was all over the place.”
The morning after she went missing, Brown made a 999 call to report a domestic issue, but despite handing himself in, he then refused to help the police with their investigation. The documentary shows a clip from his subsequent police interview in which he would only answer “no comment”. Eventually, he confessed to the killing and revealed where he had dumped the body.
The documentary features interviews with Joanna’s mum, Diana Parkes, and friend Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, who talk about the moment they realised Brown was not all he seemed. Ms Barkworth-Nanton claims Joanna told her Brown had held a knife to her chest during their relationship.
She said: “She [Joanna] said to me, and I’ve heard it from so many victims subsequently, that ‘His eyes went dark, almost black, cold, dark, black eyes.’ And he said, ‘I’m going to do it’. So she was saying, you know, ‘What will happen to the children?’ He didn’t care about what would happen to the children.”
After Joanna told Brown she wanted to end their marriage, Ms Barkworth-Nanton says, “She genuinely believed that he was going to kill her, she was of no doubt whatsoever.”
Recalling the moment she was called about Joanna’s disappearance, her mum Ms Parkes reflected: “A friend rang and said, ‘Have you spoken to Jo this morning?’ And I said ‘no’, and he said, ‘I’ve had a worrying call…’ I was told there’s police tape around the house, and I just said, ‘He’s killed her.’ I just said that straight away, ‘He’s killed her.'”
Brown later admitted to manslaughter and was cleared of murder after claiming he was suffering from adjustment disorder due to the divorce. But Judge Mr Justice Cooke handed down a lengthy manslaughter sentence.
He told the pilot: “Your responsibility, though diminished, remains substantial. You intended to kill, you intended to conceal the body and to hide the evidence of the killing.” Outside court, Joanna’s mother described the verdict as a “gross miscarriage of justice”. And she added: “Robert Brown got away with murder in name only.”
*The British Airways Killer continues tonight at 9pm on ITV
