Bolt-gun murdered John McFarlane, from Suffolk in east England, had been stalking Mary Griffiths and making repeated advances towards her. McFarlane, who worked as a slaughterman at the Denham estate nearby, took revenge after the fitness instructor posted a Facebook message saying he was “delusional” if he thought they would ever have a relationship.
In May last year, he diverted the local police by reporting a bogus burglary at the farm where he worked, and then went to Ms Griffiths’ home at about 2.45am. He disconnected the power to the house, smashed his way inside using an axe, ran up the stairs and burst into the 38-year-old fitness instructor’s bedroom where she was sleeping with her 10-year-old daughter.
Ms Griffiths’ other daughter, 13, was also woken by the commotion and also tried in vain to fight McFarlane off as he wrestled with their mother and threw her down the stairs. All four ended up in the backyard. McFarlane then shot Ms Griffiths once in the shoulder and twice in the chest with his bolt gun in front of her screaming daughters. McFarlane was found later lying in a back garden having cut his arms in an apparent suicide attempt.
The murder weapon features a retractable steel bolt that is commonly used to kill cattle at abattoirs. McFarlane had posted a chilling Facebook status update just over two hours before the horrific killing. “They say there’s nothing worse than a woman scorned, well watch this space,” McFarlane wrote. “If someone rips out your heart and stamps on it then they deserve the same.”
Adding to the family’s pain is the fact that Ms Griffiths had phoned police just hours before her death, claiming that McFarlane was stalking her. Officers were due to visit her that night, but rescheduled their meeting for the following day.
Sentencing, Mr Justice Bean told McFarlane: “Three generations of Mary Griffiths’s family have suffered a tragic and devastating loss. Her children have been deprived of a loving and caring mother.”
Outside court, the victim’s sister Louise Scannell, flanked by family members, wept as she described her as a “beloved angel” and McFarlane as the “devil incarnate”.
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