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Wife hacked to death by husband for saying she was 'single' on Facebook
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent17.10.08
A MAN who hacked his wife to death with a meat cleaver in fury over her Facebook entry was jailed for a minimum of 14 years at the Old Bailey today.
Wayne Forrester, 34, took alcohol and cocaine and drove 15 miles to New Addington, Croydon, to attack his wife Emma, also 34, as she lay in bed.
She was found in a pool of blood after neighbours were woken at 6.30am by her screams. Near her body was a large kitchen knife and in another room a blood-soaked meat cleaver.
The couple had separated four days before the murder in February and Forrester later told police he had been provoked by his wife changing her marital status to "single" on her Facebook entry, the court heard.
Forrester, an HGV driver, pleaded guilty to murder. Jailing him for life, the Common Serjeant of London Brian Barker QC said: "Your wife ended the relationship. Your reaction was one of anger and resentment.
"There is no possible excuse or justification.
"This is a tragic killing of a young woman and what you have done has called untold anguish."
The court heard that the Forresters had a "volatile and unstable marriage characterised by periods of separation and reconciliation".
Alex Lewis, prosecuting, said that while Forrester was in and out of work and cared little for family life, his wife took two jobs to make ends meet. Her parents supported the pair financially and moved home closer to them to help their daughter.
Four days before the murder Forrester moved out of the family home to stay with his sister in Paddington. He repeatedly called home and threatened to kill her.
Ms Lewis said: "He was angry about an entry on Facebook he said made him look like a fool as she had advertised her marital status as single. He accused her of having an affair."
Forrester drove to Croydon armed with the knife and meat cleaver and forced the front door open. After neighbours called 999 he emerged from the house covered in blood and holding a carton of juice.
When the police arrived he held his arms out for handcuffs and told them: "Who called you? My wife is in there. I killed her." Inside the house they found Mrs Forrester's body with a large wound in her neck. Two bannister rails had been broken off and there were clumps of long brown hair outside the bedroom.
She had multiple wounds to her neck and head and defence wounds to her arms showing she had fought to ward off the blows.
Forrester later handed detectives a prepared statement in which he said: "She forced me out of the family home and posted messages on the internet website telling everybody she had left me and was interested in meeting other men."
He went on: "The whole incident seemed a blur. I felt I was watching somebody else attacking Emma."
In an impact statement the victim's sister Eliza Rothery said the family had been devastated by the murder.
Peter Dahlsen, defending, said Forrester felt "a deeply held remorse".
Reader views (6)
This country is mad, never will I ever return to live there. You need to bring back capital punishment or whole of life inprisonment without parole for cases like this.
How will you ever lower crime rates with the pussy footing around that is going now, don't tell me, sending him to prison for life would be an infringement of his human rights.
All police should be armed and not afraid to shoot if need be, maybe if a few knife wielding teens get shot, they will stop carrying knives.
- Christian Moore, Hong Kong
There are various minimum-prison-term starting points for murder -the minimum term is the number of years the murderer has to spend in prison before they can apply for parole.
The majority of murders fall under the 15-year starting point - the judge can decrease or increase from the 15-years for mitigating or aggravating factors.
The starting points are set out in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 - just 15-years for deliberately ending another's life, that is a gross insult to us all and must be increased.
Those convicted of manslaughter are automatically released after serving only half of the - usually anyway paltry - sentence.
So much for the 'sanctity of human life'.
- Sue, London, UK
To J Westbrook and Phil Jones: If you read the article, you will see he has been sentenced to life, with a minimum term to be served of 14 years. Whilst I believe that life should mean life, that is a better sentence than most murderers, who are eligible for parole after serving one third of their sentence.
- Paul Bradford, Monflanquin, France
lucky she didnt say 'single and looking'
- Nick Bacon, london, uk
I always thought that life in prison for murder was 'life' not 14 years. He will be only 48 when he gets out, if in fact he does 14 years at all.
Plenty of time for him to meet another woman and bludgeon her to death
- J Westbrook, Hampshire
14 years means 7 years in the ludicrous UK justice sytem. 7 years seems most reasonable for hacking someone to death with a meat cleaver. Very fair indeed.
- Phil Jones, London UK
