Son charged over fatal stabbing of art curator and his daughter

Chief suspect arrested in Sydney following three-week manhunt

(EPA / PA)

The son of a British art curator was yesterday charged with the double murder of his father and sister. Antony Waterlow, 42, was found with a small knife when he was arrested by Australian police in north-west Sydney.

Nick Waterlow, 68, and his daughter Chloe, 37, were found along with an injured toddler at a house in the affluent Sydney suburb of Randwick earlier this month. They had both been stabbed multiple times. The toddler, believed to be Chloe's two-year-old daughter, was also treated for a wound to her throat.

According to local media reports, the curator's partner of 10 years, Juliet Darling, told mourners at his funeral service at Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral that he never stopped trying to help his son.

Mr Waterlow, who was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his contribution to the arts, was a former Harrow school pupil.

A cricket fan and member of MCC since 1962, he ran the Bear Lane Gallery in Oxford with his wife Rosemary O'Brien, who died in 1998. They had lived in Sydney in the 1960s.

He later worked as senior arts officer for the Milton Keynes Development Corporation, after moving back to the UK. The couple emigrated to Sydney again in 1977.

Mr Waterlow had been the director of the Ivan Dougherty Gallery at the University of New South Wales college of Fine Arts since 1979.

He regularly returned to England to visit his elderly mother and is survived by his sons Antony and Luke, and three grandchildren.

His daughter Chloe wrote cookery books. Her husband, named locally as digital technology consultant Ben Heuston, flew back to Australia after hearing of their deaths. He had been on a business trip to London.

A spokesman for New South Wales police, who arrested Waterlow after a short pursuit at the end of a three-week search, said: "Homicide Squad detectives have charged a man in relation to the alleged murder of a man and woman in Randwick earlier this month."

Officers said that the arrest followed a call made to local police by a member of the public about 10am yesterday, who reported seeing a wanted man at a service station on Putty Road.

The witness added that the man, who was armed with a small knife and threatening to injure himself, ran to a nearby empty property. The witness negotiated with him before he was arrested without incident at about 1.30pm.

The police spokesman told reporters: "[The man] was taken to Windsor police station and subsequently charged with two counts of murder and one count of recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm."

He was refused bail and will appear at Parramatta Bail Court tomorrow. Officers confirmed that "the charges relate to the alleged murder of a 68-year-old man and his 37-year-old daughter in a semi-detached home at Clovelly Road shortly before 6pm on Monday 9 November 2009."

The spokesman added that a "strike force" had been formed to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident. Strike Force Skye was made up of detectives from the State Crime Command's Homicide Squad and Eastern Beaches Local Area Command, he said.