Morning:
8°c
Pc killed lover and faked crash just days before their wedding
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent23 Nov 2009
A policeman was today jailed for life for murdering his fiancée - also a constable - by smashing her head with a hammer then staging a fake car crash to cover it up days before their Caribbean wedding.
Pc Claire Howarth, 31, died in hospital after her BMW left the road outside Bolton in the early hours last May.
In a surprise move today, Martin Forshaw, 27, changed his plea to guilty as his trial was due to start. He admitted having tried to cover up events to fool his colleagues and was ordered to serve a minimum 18 years in jail.
A post-mortem examination had found that Pc Howarth, of Greater Manchester Police, died as a result of "severe head trauma".
But colleagues were immediately suspicious that she had been so seriously injured when the car was barely damaged.
In fact Forshaw had bludgeoned his girlfriend at least five times with a lump hammer just hours before they were set to fly out to St Lucia for their wedding, due five days later.
He then carried her downstairs - still alive - at their three-bedroom semi-detached home in Tottington, Bury, and put her in the BMW.
Prosecutor Ray Wigglesworth, QC, told Manchester crown court that Forshaw drove around country lanes in the area before he staged a bogus road accident and dialled 999.
He placed Ms Howarth, who was still breathing, in the driver's seat then - using his foot on the accelerator - sat beside her and crashed into a hedge.
When police and paramedics arrived, Forshaw told them his fiancée had lost control of the car and had not been wearing a seatbelt.
She was rushed to Royal Bolton Hospital, where she was pronounced dead that day.
Ms Howarth had only just qualified and was due to start as a community beat officer in Rochdale after completing her probationary period.
Forshaw, known to friends and family as Alex, was a serving Pc with Cheshire Police until he resigned when charged with murder.
The couple had been in a relationship for 10 months but Forshaw was still seeing the mother of his four-year-old son and kept the pending marriage a secret from some of his colleagues.
The post-mortem investigation re- vealed Ms Howarth had suffered 14 injuries to her head and neck.
Reader views (8)
Tragic... very sad...
I simply cannot understand how taking a life can result in a punishment of x years in prison?! If you kill... you should be tasting the same medicine...
- Sanjay, Hounslow, UK, 24/11/2009 13:24
Report abuse
they dont like coppers in prison...he will get hammered many times over the next 18 years..if he stays the distance
- Scony, middlesbrough, 24/11/2009 12:44
Report abuse
How was he ever allowed to join the police force is my questions??
- A, Canada, 23/11/2009 21:28
Report abuse
@ trunk
yeah because hammers are normal equipment for police officers to carry in self defence ^^
I hope the lady has gone to a better place 
- Al, Lewisham, 23/11/2009 21:00
Report abuse
Or the Mental qualities of Trunk. What has this got to do with the Police exactly? Other than the fact that both victim and perp (Perp: I think that is what you trigger happy yanks call them?} were Police officers.
Answer: Absolutely nothing.
- Nazgul, Woercester Park, 23/11/2009 20:09
Report abuse
letting this guy live in jail is not a good use of tax dollars...capital punishment was never so appropriate for this most heinous crime.
- C, pickering, 23/11/2009 19:05
Report abuse
Good thing only police are allowed to have guns and knives. The common man simply can't be trusted with the basic weapons of self-defense. We just don't have the high mental qualities of the police..
- Trunk, US, 23/11/2009 14:40
Report abuse
What a coward,he had the frame of mind to bash and then fake a car accident,but he did not have the courage to call off the wedding and avoid a murder.I will never understand this type of behaviour.
- David Nigel Braham, Milan Italy, 23/11/2009 14:11
Report abuse
