STABBED WIFE 60 TIMES TO STOP HER FINDING OUT ABOUT CHILD SEX PROBE
Enniscorthy native Harry Ringwood sentenced to life in prison by Swiss court after brutal murder Was being investigated for child sex offences when he killed his wife at their Swiss apartment
AN ENNISCORTHY man has been jailed for life for the murder of his wife, who he stabbed more than 60 times to stop her finding out about a probe into child sex offences.
Mr Ringwood repeatedly stabbed his wife, Galina Shevechenko, at their apartment in the village of Lutry in Switzerland on March 23, 2015.
The trial heard that Ms Shevechenko was on her way to the local police station, having been asked to attend an interview.
She was unaware that her husband was being investigated for child sex offences.
AN Enniscorthy man has been jailed for the murder of his wife, who he stabbed more than 60 times to stop her finding out about a probe into child sex offences.
Harry Ringwood (50) was sentenced to life in prison by a Swiss court after pleading guilty to the murder.
Mr Ringwood stabbed his wife, Galina Shevechenko, at their apartment in the Swiss village of Lutry on March 23, 2015. The trial heard that Ms Shevechenko was on her way to the local police station, having been asked to attend an interview.
She was unaware that her husband was being investigated for child sex offences at the time and did not know what the interview would entail.
Mr Ringwood, who is originally from Enniscorthy, emailed the police, posing as his wife and said she could not attend the interview. He then asked her not to go, but she insisted.
Mr Ringwood then pulled a knife on Ms Shevechenko and stabbed her in the back. The court heard that Ms Shevechenko pleaded with her husband to stop, but that he continued to stab her 30 times.
He then got a longer knife and continued to stab her, saying: ‘I wanted to make sure she was dead.’
Mr Ringwood then ran a bath and took an overdose, but was soon discovered by a maintenance worker who noticed the flooding in the apartment.
He described the murder as a desperate way to stop his wife from leaving him.
He told the court: ‘I didn’t want her to leave me. She wouldn’t have put up with the shame of learning about this. I don’t know if she would have returned home. She didn’t deserve what I did. In my own strange, bizarre way I loved her and she was the person who loved me most. I have no excuse.’
Mr Ringwood had a 2009 conviction for downloading indecent images of children. He was being investigated for posing as a 13-yearold boy on Facebook to obtain nude pictures of young girls at the time of the murder.
He was as a PR executive at Philip Morris and was fired once his bosses discovered his conviction. Judge Anne Catherine Page said of the murder: ‘A more selfish motive could not exist.’