A husband has been charged with double murder after reportedly having a secret affair with his family’s au pair.
In February 2023, Christine Banfield was fatally wounded with stab wounds to her neck in another devastating case of violence against women in their own homes.
The paediatric intensive care nurse’s husband, Brendan Banfield, and their live-in nanny, Juliana Peres Magalhães, claimed they then shot her apparent killer.
It was said Joe Ryan had been lured to the mum’s bedroom in Fairfax, Virginia, US, with promises of sex, the Associated Press reports.
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The Brazilian au pair rang emergency services and was hyperventilating at the scene when she described what had supposedly occurred.
But detectives weren’t buying it. However, they needed time to build their case.
While that was going on, authorities say Magalhães moved into the master bedroom with IRS agent Banfield and posted snaps online of them as a couple.
And when she was eventually arrested in October 2023, a picture of the pair was on the bedside table.
Spending a year in jail, she wouldn’t say anything else. Prosecutors now claims they have pieced together the pair's plot to kill Christine.
A forensics report on the blood spatter evidence eventually came through, with prosecutors saying it showed Banfield had smeared blood from his wife’s wounds onto Ryan’s body – in an attempt to frame him.
Banfield was arrested in September. He has been charged with four counts of aggravated murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, relating to the killing of both Christine and Ryan.
And after a year, at the end of October, Magalhães pleaded guilty to killing Ryan, claiming she’d agreed to help Banfield kill his wife and make it seem they’d both shot a predator.
She had pleaded guilty to a single count of manslaughter, reduced from murder, and a firearm offence and her sentencing waits on the conclusion of Banfield’s trial. She may get a sentence of the time she’s already served dependent on her cooperation.
It’s said Magalhães began working for the family in late 2021 with Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Clingan claiming in court the pair began an affair in August 2022. This was soon followed by Banfield plotting to kill his wife, according to Clingan.
To cover up their acts, it’s alleged the man created a profile for Christine on a platform for people interested in sexual fetishes, matching her with Ryan.
Conversations soon began through an encrypted messaging application, with Magalhães apparently even pretending to be the wife on a call. Ryan then agreed to go around for what seemed a consensual sexual encounter.
Clingan says Magalhães told Banfield at times that she didn’t want to go through with it, ‘but he insisted that it was too late for her to back out’.
It’s said the au pair and husband left the four-year-old daughter in the basement while following Ryan to the bedroom, guns in their hands before the double murder took place.
During a monitored call from the Fairfax County jail, Magalhães told Banfield: “I hope you are not just staying with me because you are afraid I’m going to turn against you.”
LADbible has contacted Banfield's lawyer for comment.
Jess Battison