Harvey Nicks killer jailed for life
Businessman couldn’t face losing lover when his cash ran out
A BUSINESSMAN who lavished his lover with £ 180,000 in gifts before murdering her was starting a life sentence last night.
Howard Simmerson, 43, shot mother of two Julie Turner in the head as his money dwindled – along with his hold over her.
Instead of going through with a plan to kill himself, Simmerson made elaborate efforts to hide the body and evade justice.
He showed no emotion yesterday as a jury of seven women and five men found him guilty of murder.
Mr Justice Pitchers told him he would serve 25 years behind bars before being considered for release.
Simmerson, who ran several oil and gas distribution firms, became obsessed with 40year- old Miss Turner and would spend £1,000 a week on designer clothes and jewellery for her.
In one month he spent £12,000 and flew to New York just to buy her a coat. On June 7 this year he took her to her favourite store, Harvey Nichols in Leeds, and bought her three handbags worth £2,800.
Later that evening he shot her and stuffed her body in an oil drum.
Simmerson then used her mobile phone to send fake text messages to himself and Miss Turner’s partner to give himself an alibi.
He sent a message to Miss Turner’s partner Darren Akers saying: ‘Tell the kids not to worry. Sorting my life out. Be in touch to get some things.’
Another sent to his own mobile read: ‘ I’m stopping at my friend’s… don’t bother looking for me.’ Just hours after the murder he had sex with another girlfriend, farmer’s daughter Charlotte Melland, in the hope she would persuade her father to let him bury the oil drum on his Derbyshire property. Mr Akers became concerned when Miss Turner didn’t return from her shopping trip and called in police.
Simmerson was charged with murder and her body was found six weeks later. Passing sentence, Mr Justice Pitchers said the ‘expense of trying to buy her love’ or her refusal to ‘leave her family’ or both had probably led to Miss Turner’s murder.
The judge said Simmerson was ‘ almost unimaginably callous’ in the way he tried to conceal her body.
Police later found ‘suicide notes’ in Simmerson’s briefcase which had been written 14 months before Miss Turner’s death.
They indicated a murder and suicide plan hatching in his mind as his money disappeared. In one note he wrote: ‘If we can’t be together in this life we will be together in the next.’ He also wrote:
‘ The spending machine has dried up.’
Mr Akers collapsed in tears at the verdict and sobbed outside court. He described Miss Turner as a ‘ fun- loving person who was devoted to her children’. He said her relationship with Simmerson was a ‘ mistake’, adding: ‘Unfortunately she has not been here to defend herself.’
Miss Turner met Simmerson after he described himself as a ‘country gent’ looking for ‘society lady’ in a lonely hearts advertisement.
Jobless, depressed and stuck on a Sheffield housing estate with her childhood sweetheart Mr Akers and their two children aged 15 and nine, she was looking for an escape from her daily routine.
Within days of meeting Simmerson she was swept off her feet into a world of wealth, designer clothes and expensive jewellery.
Simmerson was an unmarried businessman who lived in a £400,000 farmhouse near Creswell, Derbyshire, and drove a Mercedes. He seemed like the answer to her dreams.
He was also a fraudster involved in illegal business dealings. And he had a history of obsessive and violent relationships with women.
Miss Turner left Mr Akers to spend two days in Blackpool with Simmerson, before returning home and begging her partner’s forgiveness. A few days later Simmerson turned up at their house with two ‘ bouncers’, who held Mr Akers off while he had ‘a conversation’ with Miss Turner – effectively forcing her to continue their relationship.
Simmerson had become obsessed with his new lover. He spent hours parked outside her home and the children’s school to watch what she was doing every minute of the day.
For four years she continued the relationship with Simmerson, while staying with Mr Akers.
Police believe a mixture of fear and a love of glamour kept her seeing Simmerson. Every week they went out shopping, spending on average £1,000 a time. Police studied Simmerson’s bank accounts and found he had spent almost £200,000 on her.
Harvey Nichols in Leeds was their favourite haunt. Simmerson splashed out £71,000 in that store alone.
The couple were well known to staff and would wander around, with Simmerson stroking Miss Turner’s hair.
After shopping he said they would have sex in his car and at his home.
Seemingly oblivious to Mr Akers’s feelings, Miss Turner would return to their home weighed down with shopping bags of designer clothes and shoes. She had three mobile phones to match different outfits.
She was wearing a diamond- studded Gucci watch when she was murdered. Police found her wardrobe full of Dolce & Gabbana and Christian Dior pieces.
Other favourite shopping locations were the Meadowhall centre in Sheffield where she was a regular at Goldsmiths jewellers and Karen Millen.
Her lover, however, spent very little on himself. Simmerson always wore tatty jeans. He didn’t take her on fancy foreign holidays or expensive nights out.
Police believe he got a ‘ buzz’ out of their spending sprees and wanted Miss Turner as a ‘trophy’.
But he was constantly frustrated by her refusal to leave her partner for him. And so, to keep his romantic options open, he continued to place lonely hearts advertisements and meet other women.
Simmerson also knew it was only a matter of time before his money ran out. His lavish spending sprees were largely based on ill- gotten gains.
In 1998 Simmerson was jailed for 12 months at Derby Crown Court for an insurance scam. On his release the former farm worker set up three businesses distributing oil and gas from a oneroom base on a Chesterfield industrial estate. Miss Turner was a director of two of the firms.
None of the takings were declared in company accounts. During the period he was lavishing money on his lover the companies were said to have total net assets of £1.
Detective Sergeant Richard Shimwell, of South Yorkshire police, described Simmerson as a ‘ cold and calculating’ murderer who had shown no emotion or remorse throughout the investigation.
By the summer of 2005 Simmerson knew he could no longer keep up the pretence of wealth that was the key to his affair.
Without his money he would have no hold over Miss Turner.
He decided to murder her rather than lose her.