![Mark Chapman](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/sport/2024/07/11/TELEMMGLPICT000328483941_17206946175170_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq87CuL66ZkJHjK9YpDXLz0KkraAAWKR1QY0gRh-FZH48.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Mark Chapman leads support for BBC commentator John Hunt after family killed
Radio 5 Live presenter’s voice quivered with emotion as he reacted to shocking news of crossbow attack before coverage of Euro 2024 match
![Mark Chapman](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/sport/2024/07/11/TELEMMGLPICT000328483941_17206946175170_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq87CuL66ZkJHjK9YpDXLz0KkraAAWKR1QY0gRh-FZH48.jpeg?imwidth=680)
BBC and ITV presenters paid emotional on-air tributes to commentator John Hunt and his family after his wife and two youngest daughters were killed in a crossbow attack.
Mr Hunt, who had been working for the BBC at Lingfield Park racecourse on Tuesday, retuyrned home after Carol Hunt, 61, and the couple’s children Louise, 25, and Hannah, 28, had been discovered with fatal injuries.
The tragedy was met with shock and sorrow across the world of sports broadcasting, with leading figures queuing up to pay tribute to the respected journalist and commentator.
During the opening of BBC Radio 5 Live coverage of England’s Euro 2024 semi-final, Mark Chapman quivered with emotion as he described a sense of disbelief amongst Mr Hunt’s colleagues.
“This has been a heartbreaking day,” host Chapman told listeners. “John Hunt is our colleague and our friend, not just to the current 5 Live sports team, but to all of those who’ve worked here with him over the past 20 years, and also to all of you who have enjoyed his superb commentaries. So, on behalf of everybody connected to 5 Live Sports, our love and thoughts and support are with John and his family.”
After a major manhunt led by police, 26-year-old suspect Kyle Clifford was apprehended after officers found him hurt near a North London graveyard. Clifford was sent to a hospital for the treatment of his injuries, police reported.
Other sports broadcasters to pay on-air tribute to Mr Hunt included Mark Pougatch during ITV’s coverage of the Euros. Dan Walker, a former BBC colleague, the commentator Jacqui Oatley and former England striker Michael Owen, a keen horse racing enthusiast, also sent messages of support.
“John Hunt is one of the best and his life was ripped apart yesterday when his wife and daughters were murdered,” said Walker, now working on Channel 5.
![John Hunt at work at Bath racecourse](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/07/10/TELEMMGLPICT000385076421_17206344538130_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqwTxxBqSgwbEA8kJbsmeKeWO4WXj9YOMkOIvTtxikFgg.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Oatley also posted on X: “I couldn’t/didn’t want to tweet about football yesterday due to the utter horror of hearing about John Hunt’s family. Notice how everyone else who knows @HuntyCaller has said the same thing. What a truly lovely, wonderful man he is. He has so much support. He’ll need it.”
Owen added that people should “spare a thought for John Hunt” while the nation is caught up in celebrations at England beating the Netherlands in the semi-final at Euro 2024. “I can’t remember feeling so utterly horrified in years,” wrote Owen. “Those poor girls. Truly horrific.”
Mr Hunt first started commentating for Radio 5 Live in 2004, and branched out from racing to cover London 2012 events in equestrian and the modern pentathlon. In 2013, he also became a swimming commentator. Prior to broadcasting, he had worked with the police.
Ian Dennis, the BBC football commentator, said “the emotional, powerful opening” to 5 Live from Chapman “was so moving but is also a reflection of how the entire sports team and station feel with their thoughts and love towards” their former colleague.
Former BBC racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght added: “There are no words. Like everyone else I feel numb and sick on John’s behalf at such incomprehensible evil. Everyone who knows John knows he is the absolute archetypal family man, so proud of them, so it’s impossible to know what he can be going through. But I know I’m speaking for the whole racing community and the whole wider sports media community as well, both of which he’s been part of for so long, when I say everyone is sending sympathy, love and support to him. It’s just awful.”
As tearful residents around Mr Hunt’s family home at Ashlyn Close, Bushey, Hertfordshire, laid flowers, a note sent to staff at BBC Radio 5 Live on Wednesday said the organisation would provide the commentator with “all the support we can”.
It read: “The news today about John Hunt’s family is utterly devastating. Our thoughts are with John and his family at this incredibly difficult time and we will provide him with all the support we can.”
A statement from Sky Sports Racing read: “Everyone at Sky Sports Racing is deeply saddened by the tragic deaths in Hertfordshire and our thoughts are with our colleague John Hunt, his family and friends at this awful time.”