4-year-old's statements should be allowed at father's murder trial, prosecutors say

Prosecutors are seeking to include statements made to police by a 4-year-old girl after her mother and another victim were found slain in the family's home Herndon, Virginia.

The double murder mystery has drawn international attention. The little girl's father, Brendan Banfield, is accused of plotting his wife’s killing so he could run off with the family’s au pair.

Banfield is charged with the murder of his wife. He has pleaded not guilty, but new court filings obtained by News4 are shining more light onto this dark and bizarre case.

Attorneys met Friday for a brief hearing and will soon argue a motion made by prosecutors that asks the court to allow statements made by the Banfields’ young daughter in the hours after her father allegedly murdered her mother.

Recap: Virginia father accused in murder plot involving a fetish sex website, while au pair takes guilty plea

Prosecutors say Brendan Banfield, an IRS law enforcement agent, was having an affair with his family’s au pair and plotted a scheme to murder his wife in February 2023. The Banfields' daughter was 4 at the time.

Prosecutors say Banfield created a fake online account on an adult fetish website and lured a man named Joseph Ryan to the family’s home. Ryan thought he was going to meet Christine Banfield to consensually play out a fetish sex fantasy involving a knife, according to prosecutors, but Christine was not aware of any of this.

In this new court filing, prosecutors say the element of surprise was critical to Brendan Banfield’s alleged murder plot.

Ryan entered the home and was in the primary bedroom where Christine had been sleeping when, prosecutors say, Brendan came in and killed his wife and the au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhaes, killed Ryan.

Au pair said father planned to bring 4-year-old into home before killings

News4 has now learned that, in October, Peres Magalhaes confessed to prosecutors and detectives that Brendan Banfield constructed the entire double murder plot and that he even intentionally planned to bring his young child into the home.

Detectives say the little girl waited in the basement as her mother and Ryan were killed upstairs.

After the crimes, the girl was taken to police headquarters, where she gave statements to a forensic interviewer.

Virginia law would typically not permit any statements made outside of court by someone under 13 to be used as evidence, but there are some exceptions and the judge could make that decision next month.

The attorneys' motion gives us a glimpse of what she told police. The girl allegedly explained how the au pair woke her up that day, got her dressed and told her to be quiet so she wouldn’t wake up her mother. The girl said she thought they were going to the zoo, but prosecutors claim that was a lie Banfield and the au pair were telling the girl as part of the alleged murder plot.

The au pair has agreed to testify against Banfield at his trial, which is set for October.

A judge accepted the terms of the au pair's plea deal last fall, allowing her to plead guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter in Ryan's killing in exchange for her cooperation in the prosecution of Brendan Banfield. She will be sentenced after Banfield's trial.