Former boyfriend sentenced to life for Facebook reunion murder
A MAN brutally murdered his exgirlfriend just weeks after he was reunited with her via Facebook.
David Hoyle, 39, from Bradford, had been in a relationship 15 years ago with Rebecca Bamber, 42, from Widnes, Cheshire, but had lost touch with her until the pair began chatting on the social network in May.
They met on a number of occasions in Bradford and Cheshire but the night before mother-ofone Ms Bamber died is believed to have been the first time that Hoyle had visited her home.
Hoyle, of Idle Road, stayed the night on June 7 but the following morning a neighbour was in his garden when he heard a woman screaming and the sound of a broken glass.
The neighbour then saw Ms Bamber at the downstairs front window, covered in blood and mouthing the words “phone the police”.
Hoyle had attacked her with three wine bottles in the bedroom of her property, causing wounds so severe that they fractured her skull.
He went on to repeatedly stab Ms Bamber as she made a desperate attempt to escape and she eventually made it into her garden, still pursued by Hoyle, where she collapsed. Hoyle fled the scene in a van and rammed police vehicles before he was stopped and arrested on the M56 motorway.
Ms Bamber died at Whiston Hospital in Prescot from her injuries.
Hoyle was jailed at Chester Crown Court for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 25 years after he was convicted by a jury of murder.
Following sentence, Detective Inspector Helen Spooner, of Cheshire Constabulary, said: “Hoyle’s attack was brutal, sustained and shocking.”
Senior Crown Prosecutor Richard Riley said: “Hoyle subjected Ms Bamber to a brutal and sustained attack and clearly intended to do her really serious harm.
“She’d been stabbed 11 times with two different knives and three broken bottles.”