A BABY and his two-year-old brother were killed when their father threw himself off Beachy Head with them, an inquest heard.
John Chetwynd, 43, took his children to the notorious suicide spot after assaulting his Vietnamese wife with a rounders bat.
Only two bodies were discovered following the tragedy which happened nearly seven years ago, with rescuers unable to find the missing two-year-old.
Now a coroner has ruled that the toddler, Kevin, was unlawfully killed.
Accountant Chetwynd drove from his home in Hayes, Middlesex to the notorious suicide spot on June 23, 1997.
His body and that of 11-month-old son Christopher were found two days later.
The inquest could only be held until Coroner Alan Craze was satisfied that all efforts had been made to trace Kevin.
He heard that Chetwynd disappeared with his two children after beating their mother, Thi Lee, unconscious with a child's rounders bat.
He then drove to Beachy Head in his Rover.
Detective Sergeant Simon Barnes of Sussex Police CID said Chetwynd's car was spotted abandoned two days later on June 25.
He said, 'A search of the local area was done and the bodies of a man and boy were discovered. They were taken to the morgue and later positively identified.'
DS Barnes told the inquest that Chetwynd had previously been married to Tina Valentine and had two other children.
But the relationship ended and he moved to Acton, west London.
Chetwynd then began working in the accounts department at the French Croissant Company where a Vietnamese colleague gave him the contact address of Thi Lee, a 31-year-old nurse.
Chetwynd went to Vietnam and married her in 1991.
She then came to the UK.
DS Barnes added, 'The marriage was not a happy relationship. On occasions he would take his wife and children to friends' addresses and not return to pick them up.
'It was also suggested that on occasions he would hit Kevin.
'They (Thi Lee and Chetwynd) would argue constantly and he would tell her to go back to Vietnam.'
On June 23, 1997 Chetwynd carried out his assault on his wife. She suffered a fractured skull and spent a few days in hospital.
She crawled to a neighbour's house where the police were called.
Letters to Chetwynd's father, Dennis, who lives in Margate, were found by the abandoned vehicle at the top of the cliffs.
Chetwynd claimed his wife was not a fit mother and described her as 'awful and dangerous'.
Mr Craze said that all attempts to locate Kevin had been explored with 'wholly negative results'.
He recorded a verdict of unlawful killing.