Secret surveillance caught out boxer who killed his girlfriend
AN AMATEUR boxer was caught confessing to killing his girlfriend after being caught on tape when police secretly bugged his house.
James Tobin had slapped his girlfriend Kellie Gillard, 25, in a “post-sex argument”, causing her to fall out of bed and bang her head on the wall at his home in Port Talbot on April 24, 2015.
Kellie, who was 25 at the time, died later in hospital from a ruptured artery, but Tobin denied being to blame for her fall in the bedroom.
Initially, Tobin said she had died from a drug overdose, and then told police she had fallen and hit her head.
But after detectives put a secret recording device in his home, they heard him confess to his father to the killing.
In a new ITV show, South Wales Police have shown for the first time how they ended up catching the killer.
After a pathologist found bruising on Kellie’s body, a further examination was carried out.
It showed bruising behind her ears which police said was consisted with an assault.
“As far as the evidence was showing, the account was showing the James Tobin account wasn’t accurate,” Detective Chief inspector Gareth Morgan told Crime Files, shown on ITV Wales last night.
A week after Kellie’s death, Tobin was arrested again on suspicion of murder.
But he told police it was all an accident and that Kellie had fallen from the bed.
In a police interview, Tobin said: “She got giddy or light-headed and just fell over and banged her head.”
Tobin added she may have banged her head on a “radiator” or “drawers”, with bruising caused by them having sex.
There was just one problem. When police went to investigate the room where it happened, he had left, taking his furniture with him.
“In the days subsequent to Kellie’s death, he had vacated this room and gone to live elsewhere,” Detective Constable Richie Rees said.
“He had taken his furniture with him. It was important for us to locate that furniture and place it back at the scene to compare it to the original photographs, so we were able to put it back in situ as it was and take the necessary measurements.
“James Tobin’s account was that during the evening of Kellie’s death, she had stood on the bed and then fallen, and then, he suggests, hit her head on something.
“So it was important for us to test that evidence to see if that was in fact feasible.
“It was highly unlikely Kellie’s injuries had been caused by a fall.”
There wasn’t enough evidence to charge Tobin and he was released on bail.
Police needed more evidence to prove he had killed Kellie.
But after detectives discovered that Tobin had a past of controlling behaviour and domestic violence with both Kellie and previous partners, they decided to install a secret listening device in Tobin’s home.
On it there was one conversation that sounded like a confession by Tobin.
“I said she’s chopsing so I just put her to sleep like,” Tobin told his father.
His father replied: “That’s between you and me, butt. No-one else will ever know that. You ‘sparked her’ was your words.
“She was going to die, right, she was an accident waiting to happen. It’s unfortunate it’s you it happened with.
“But she always thought she was clever.”
“That’s a local term,” Detective Rees told the ITV show’s presenter Andrea Byrne as they watched the footage.
“To spark somebody effectively means to punch them and knock them out.
“James Tobin, as I’m sure you’re aware, was a trained boxer.”
But police also found another confession.
When Tobin was first arrested, he called his dad from his cell. That call was recorded by police.
“I decked her,” Tobin said. “Oh G, I actually killed her. I killed her, I gave her the best punch.”
Detective Chief Inspector Morgan said: “This was the golden nugget, the moment where the investigation team had a collective sigh and looked at each other around the room, thinking ‘this is it’.”
“I think James Tobin thought he got away with it.
“And that’s what’s unique about this case. He probably would have got away with it if we hadn’t gone to such lengths and used all the tools available to us.
“If we hadn’t had such a committed investigation team, I think the likelihood is he would have walked away.”
Tobin pleaded guilty to manslaughter at Swansea Crown Court and was jailed for 12 and a half years in prison, with a four-year extended licence.
Three years on, Kellie’s family are still upset he won’t take responsibility for her death.
“He spun this massive web of lies and he thought it was OK to do that,” her sister Sadie Broad said.
“He put us through absolute hell and back.
“We were first told she had taken her own life. But we didn’t believe that. We knew she wouldn’t have done that.
“But it was horrendous. There’s such a void in our family now. We should just try and remember her as happy.
“She didn’t take her own life, someone took hers.”
■ The Crime Files series is on ITV Wales on Monday nights at 8pm.