‘EVEN IN THOSE DYING MOMENTS, IT’S CLEAR YOU LOVED HIM AND HE LOVED YOU, BUT IT WAS A TOXIC RELATIONSHIP’
29-year-old jailed for killing partner with knife as he tried to stop her self-harming
A DYING dad-of-four clung to his killer partner and told her ‘I love you’ after being stabbed in the heart during a violent row.
Craig Morse had been trying to wrestle a knife from the hands of his girlfriend Tonia Crabtree to stop her self-harming. But during the tussle, the 9cm blade pierced his chest.
In shock, the 33-year-old, who previously lived in Meir and Bentilee, staggered around the house saying ‘she’s stabbed me, she’s stabbed me’ before he uttered his fateful last words and died.
Now Crabtree, aged 29, has been sentenced to four years and nine months in prison after pleading guilty to Mr Morse’s manslaughter.
In a victim impact statement, his heartbroken dad Dillwyn Morse said: “I feel like my heart and very soul has been ripped out and this violent act has killed us all in a way. Tonia, you broke God’s first commandment and you will have to face him one day.
“God shall forgive you, but I never will.”
Derby Crown Court heard both Mr Morse and Crabtree were originally from Stoke-on-trent but were living in Langley Mill, Derbyshire, at the time.
Prosecutor Adrian Langdale
QC said the couple had both been drinking when an argument broke out in the early hours of April 2 with Mr Morse at one point giving her a black eye. Mr Langdale said Crabtree and the victim were in the kitchen when she removed a knife from a knife block and there was a struggle as he tried to get it from her.
He said: “Craig Morse was stabbed to the left side of the chest in a frontto-back direction.
“The knife went into the chest and the main right heart ventricle.”
Mr Langdale said Mr Morse staggered gg out of the kitchen and into
the main bedroom where Crabtree’s brother Daniel and his partner were sleeping.
Reading from Mr Crabtree’s account to police he said: “Craig was screaming and came into the bedroom saying ‘she’s stabbed me, she’s stabbed me, I should not have done it’ meaning hit her. He struggled back, raised his arms and pulled her in as if to cuddle her. “He told her he loved her, his body went limp and he collapsed in the hallway.” Clive Stockwell QC, mitigating, said said: “At no point did Tonia Crabtree intend to cause any injury to Craig Morse. She was not looking to hurt him, she was not looking to cause him any physical injury because she loved him and he loved her.”
“She jabbed out that night to ward off Craig Morse to prevent him from stopping her from achieving what she wanted to achieve and that is cutting herself which, over the years, has given her temporary release. This was in the heat of the moment and was one motion and regretted immediately.”
Sentencing Crabtree, Judge Nirmal Shant QC, Honorary Recorder of Derby, y, said: “Mr Morse’s death has un unsurprisingly had a huge im impact on the lives of those who lo loved him.
““Nothing I can do to you today w will diminish the grief they have su suffered and will continue to su suffer. Sadly, even in his dying moments it is clear you loved him and he loved you. But it was a toxic relationship.”