I put her to sleep
Boxer who killed girlfriend caught confessing to attack when police bugged house
An AmAteur boxer who killed his girlfriend in a post- sex row was snared after police secretly recorded him confessing.
Discussing his dead girlfriend Kellie Gillard, James tobin chillingly told his father: ‘I just put her to sleep.’
tobin slapped miss Gillard, 25, during an argument at their home, causing her to fall out of bed, banging her head into a wall. After being taken to hospital she later died from a ruptured artery.
tobin claimed her death was an accident, first insisting she had taken an overdose, then saying she fell while standing on the bed.
But he was jailed after police took the extraordinary step of bugging his home and recorded his confession
red flags had been raised over miss Gillard’s death after a pathologist found bruising on her body consistent with an assault.
tobin was arrested on suspicion of assault, but police did not have enough evidence to charge him.
However, after they learned that tobin had a history of domestic violence and controlling behaviour towards miss Gillard and previous partners, they decided to bug his home in Port talbot, South Wales.
tobin was heard telling his father: ‘I said she’s chopsing [making fun of me] so I just put her to sleep like.’
His father replied: ‘ that’s between you and me. no one else will ever know that. You “sparked her” [ punched her] was your words.’ Police also unearthed another confession, made to his father from a cell after his arrest.
In that phone call, he said: ‘I decked her. Oh G, I actually killed her. I killed her, I gave her the best punch.’
Last year tobin, then aged 21, was jailed for 12-and-a-half years after he admitted manslaughter over the killing in April 2015. the secret recordings that helped convict him have now been released as part of ItV documentary Crime Files, which was broadcast last night.
Detective Chief Inspector Gareth morgan said the prison call to tobin’s dad, mark, was the moment South Wales Police real- ised they had their man. ‘this was the golden nugget, the moment where the investigation team had a collective sigh and looked at each other around the room, thinking “this is it”,’ he said.
‘I think James tobin thought he got away with it. And that’s what’s unique about this case.
‘He probably would have got away with it if we hadn’t gone to such lengths and used all the tools available to us.’
A court had heard that at the time of the attack tobin was under the influence of cocaine and alcohol, and had a history of domestic violence.
the couple had a row after having after sex, with miss Gillard kicking tobin in the head before tobin slapped her, said prosecutor Vincent Coughlin.
He said: ‘He concedes that in a short exchange of violence ... he must have delivered a number of
‘Thought he’d got away with it’
forceful blows with an open hand. She collided with the wall and fell from the bed.’
After he was jailed, miss Gillard’s mother, tracey, said the family would ‘never come to terms with’ her death and had been given a life sentence of grief.
She said of tobin: ‘He was an evil person who had control of her and she just kept quiet and tried to defuse situations.
‘James tobin has broken our hearts. no matter what sentence he receives it won’t change the way that we feel.’
She said miss Gillard was a ‘beautiful, caring and loving girl’, adding: ‘ the future should have been seeing my beautiful Kellie on her wedding day with her dad proudly walking her up the aisle and giving her away.
‘I can’t begin to imagine what she went through at the hands of someone she fell in love with.’