Jilted man stabbed ex-partner to death
AJILTED man murdered his ex-partner after breaking into her home and lying in wait for her – days after she ended the relationship.
Linda Parker, a 52-yearold grandmother, had changed the locks at the house she used to share with Glen Gibbons after throwing him out for grabbing her by the throat in a pub.
But on September 25 last year, hours after ‘frightened’ Linda decided to take out a restraining order against him, Gibbons broke into the house.
Ms Parker’s sister Kathleen called her just before noon and heard her trembling voice saying: “Get out Glen, get out. I’ll talk to you if you put the knife down.”
Ms Parker was later found dead, having being stabbed 12 times.
Gibbons, of Bingley Square, Rochdale, has been sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 22 years, after pleading guilty to murdering the mother-of-four and grandmother-of-three.
Manchester Crown Court heard that on the morning of her death Ms Parker, who had been in a relationship with Gibbons for about two years, was due to attend a jobs course in Rochdale.
Gibbons knew about the 10am appointment and waited for her as she got off the bus in the town centre.
He tried talking to her, and a stranger who saw what was happening helped Ms Parker make it to the appointment.
Staff running the course noticed how frightened she was, prosecutor Andrew O’Byrne said, and arranged for a taxi to pick her up at the back entrance.
Ms Parker took the taxi to her mother’s house in Heywood at 10.40am, but she was anxious to return to her home in Atholl Drive, Heywood.
After Gibbons had approached her in Rochdale, he went into a nearby shop and bought a kitchen utensil set which included a knife, the weapon he would later use to murder her.
When she returned home, Ms Parker found Gibbons, who had got in through a window, inside. The knife was never recovered but the packaging of the utensil set, which was left at the scene, contained Gibbons’ DNA.
Gibbons later called his mother and sister, telling them he had stabbed Ms Parker.
Hours later, he handed himself in. He told police: “I’m devastated it all happened.”
The court heard Gibbons was ‘extremely possessive’ of Ms Parker and violent towards her. Her family also noticed a change in her behaviour as the relationship wore on. The final straw came for Ms Parker earlier in September, when Gibbons grabbed her by the throat following a row in the King’s Arms pub in Heywood.
Sentencing, Mr Justice Bryan said Ms Parker’s family should not feel guilty.
Addressing Gibbons, he said: “They [Ms Parker’s family] feel guilt that they were not there to save their mother – but they have no reason to feel guilty – the guilt is yours, and it is a guilt which you must carry for the rest of your life.”