Man killed lover after she ended their affair
A MARRIED father of four was yesterday convicted of murdering a Scottish woman outside her work after she ended her affair with him.
Stuart Thomas stabbed Katrina O’Hara to death with a kitchen knife after lying in wait for her by the hairdresser where she worked.
Days before the attack, he had been arrested for harassing her and banned from contacting her.
Winchester Crown Court was told the 49-year-old refused to accept his relationship with Miss O’Hara was over.
Following the verdict, the family of the murdered mother-of-three read victim impact statements, which left many in the court in tears.
‘We still need our mum,’ said a statement from her devastated children. ‘We need her every day and we cannot have her.’
Miss O’Hara, 44, who was originally from Bangour in West Lothian, was working at Jock’s Barbers in the village of Blandford Forum in Dorset on January 7 when Thomas arrived with a knife.
He waited until she came outside for her cigarette break and then confronted her.
Prosecutor Nigel Lickley, QC, told the court: ‘She struggled with him in the nearby car park. People heard screaming and heard her telling him to get off.’
He said Thomas chased her back inside and stabbed twice in the chest. She was found in a pool of blood at the back of the shop.
Days earlier, on December 30, selfemployed builder Thomas had been arrested for harassment.
A condition of his bail was that he made no attempt to contact Miss O’Hara who lived in the village of Okeford Fitzpaine, Dorset.
The two had begun their relationship in May 2015 but Miss O’Hara soon tried to end it because Thomas was married and she found him ‘manipulative and controlling’. The court heard he threatened to kill himself if she did not take him back. He had also abducted Miss O’Hara and threatened to kill them both by driving into a tree.
As jurors returned a guilty verdict yesterday, members of Miss O’Hara’s family wept with relief while Thomas showed no sign of emotion.
In a victim impact statement read by Miss O’Hara’s son Kyle, 25, he said that for him, his brother Dean, 24, and sister Morgan, 17, their world had stopped on January 7. He said: ‘My mum was a saint, she overwhelmed us with her love.’
Her mother Mary O’Hara, 85, said: ‘Nothing can ever prepare you to hear such horrific news as “your daughter has been murdered”.’
Thomas will be sentenced at a later date.