A bullying boyfriend stabbed his partner in the neck more than 50 times before his own mother’s dashcam caught him dumping evidence, a trial has heard.
Mum-of-two Kerry Woolley was found dead with ‘catastrophic’ injuries in the bedroom of her flat in Solihull, West Midlands, on July 12 last year.
Birmingham Crown Court was told how her boyfriend Ian Bennett, 38, had researched the ‘best way to get revenge on a woman’ before the killing.
Jurors heard how the defendant was recorded throwing a plastic bag in a canal on dashcam footage recovered by his mother, who is accused of helping him.
Prosecutors argue ‘jealous and possessive’ Bennett was disposing of the large knife he used to murder his girlfriend.
The court was also told the defendant’s 999 call, made while standing outside the flat, was a ‘pre-planned… web of deceit’.
He told officers he did not want to touch anything because ‘it’s obviously a crime scene’ hours after he knew she was dead, jurors heard. Bennett has been charged with a single count of murder.
His 63-year-old mother, Lynda, has been charged with assisting an offender and perverting the course of justice, after allegedly making a false witness statement.
The court heard how Ms Woolley, 38, had been going out with the defendant for a month and had him over as a guest before the fatal attack.
Opening the case yesterday, Caroline Goodwin QC told jurors: ‘It was a deliberate attack to kill her or cause grievous bodily harm. It was brutal and deliberate.
‘The injuries to Kerry Woolley were significant in nature and number. She sustained 54 sharp-force injuries, the majority in her neck area.
‘This was violence delivered by Ian Bennett and was done not just with one knife but with two.
‘She had few defensive injuries, but that which were delivered to her ended her life. They were catastrophic.’
Ms Goodwin told jurors the alleged killer ‘sought to duck and dive and mislead the police’.
She added: ‘He lied in that first call to the authorities and that marked the first of a series of lies that he was to tell as to the death of his girlfriend Kerry Woolley over the next few days and, we say, months to come, too cowardly to accept what he had done. The Crown say he is still lying now.’
The prosecution said Ian Bennett attempted to ‘cover up’ what he had done, before adding: ‘The destruction of that evidence was done with the willing assistance of his mother, Lynda Bennett.
‘She was to become a willing participant in the disposal of that evidence, which so obviously tied her son to this offence, forever trying to eliminate evidence that would have assisted the police in the investigation of this crime.’
Speaking about the 999 call made by Ian Bennett, Ms Goodwin said: ‘This was no call out of genuine concern, it was all part of a contrived masquerade designed to mislead.
‘He was to lie not only to the police, but he lied to her sister, her friends, all with an aim of manipulating the situation – he was the hard-done boyfriend who had found his girlfriend dead.
‘Not a word of truth passed his lips about what had happened between himself and Miss Woolley.’
The Bennetts, both from Solihull, deny all charges. The trial continues.
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