Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
SAVAGE KNIFE
‘My Megan asks when Mummy’s coming home..’
A “MONSTER” who carried out a “cold-blooded public execution” by stabbing an Aldi worker to death has been jailed for a minimum 30 years.
Neville Hord, 44, wanted to cause “maximum pain, horror, shock and trauma” when he attacked Jodie Willsher in front of horrified shoppers.
The plumber had collected an “armoury of lethal weapons” before “calmly” walking into the packed store four days before Christmas.
With a knife and a “back-up” axe, hidden in his jacket he spotted mum-ofone Jodie, the daughter of his ex-girlfriend. As she smiled at him, he took out his knife and repeatedly stabbed her head, neck, body and chest in a “chilling and utterly wicked” attack.
Hord blamed Jodie, 30, for the breakdown of his relationship with her mum Nicole Dinsdale and decided to murder her in “revenge”, a court was told.
For two weeks he monitored her movements after putting a tracker under her car which sent her location to his phone.
Prosecutor Peter Moulson told the court about the fateful day, saying: “CCTV recovered from the store shows Hord calmly walk down one of the aisles, intercepting Jodie as she walked towards him.
“Hord then stabbed Jodie multiple times to her head and body in a deter-
HUSBAND
THE devastated husband of murdered Jodie has told how their four-year-old daughter can’t understand why Mummy still hasn’t come home.
Grief-stricken Malcolm Willsher, 36, said little Megan tells him he’s “not trying hard enough” to bring his wife back.
In his victim impact statement, he said he now feels “scared and alone”. He said: “The only way I get through the day is by not thinking about her – but not thinking about her is doing her an injustice. It’s like having your heart ripped every single day.”
He said: “The death of my wife has ripped my life apart... I am still waiting for her to come through the door.
“Jodie’s description of herself and Megan was ‘a brunette and a blonde with an unbreakable bond.’ He has broken that.
“Jodie was my soul mate. Megan does not deserve this, she needs a mum, if I could click my fingers and swap places with Jodie I would.
“He deserves to rot in hell.”
OF JODIE
mined and forceful attack. This was a cold-blooded public execution, perpetrated for the purpose of revenge.”
The court heard Jodie and Hord fell to the floor during the assault as she used her arms to try to defend herself.
Staff and customers in the store said they heard screaming and a voice shouting, ‘What are you doing?’.
They ran to help and eventually restrained Hord, using a belt and clingfilm to bind his arms and legs. Sadly, Jodie could not be saved and was