Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Kids’ football coach admits teen murder ..14 years on
She faces life sentence after confession
A GIRLS’ football coach faces life in prison after she admitted murdering a teenager 14 years ago.
Karen Tunmore was 21 when she bludgeoned 19-year-old Scott Pritchard outside his home in January 2004.
Despite a huge murder probe she was never caught and went on to become a coach with the FA Wild Cat programme encouraging girls to take up the sport. With no convictions she passed police background checks before being taken on as a coach working with junior clubs across Tyneside. She was suspended as soon as her arrest came to light.
Now 36, she would still be at large – but on July 31 she walked into a police station and confessed her crime.
Parents of kids she coached said she had “disappeared” earlier in the year amid claims of a breakdown, before “confiding in a friend” who advised her to go to police.
As a coach she was admired and respected by parents and children alike. One parent said: “She was really enthusiastic, and very successful. She managed to recruit so many kids and they’d get FA head bands and water bottles.
“She had up to 30 from under-nine to under-11. She would coach on Saturday morning then take them to games in the afternoon. She must’ve been juggling two or three teams.” The parent added: “She was never alone with the kids, but it’s still hard to come to terms with what she’s done.” Tunmore of Killingworth, North Tyneside, will be sentenced at Newcastle crown court today after pleading guilty in August to murdering the Sunderland teenager. The FA declined to comment.