Merciless, sustained and savage
Judge’s verdict on former soldier’s fatal Gurkha knife attack on wife who left him
A FORMER soldier stabbed his wife to death with a Gurkha knife in front of neighbours and children after she left him for another man, a court heard yesterday.
Craig Woodhall, 41, attacked Victoria Woodhall, 32, outside their home as she filmed him to show friends evidence of his bullying behaviour.
She stood no chance against what the judge described as a ‘merciless, sustained and savage’ onslaught.
The horror was caught on CCTV but the footage was too shocking to play in court.
Yesterday Woodhall, a man with a long history of possessive and controlling behaviour towards his partners, was jailed for life after admitting murder.
Judge Jeremy Richardson, QC, said: ‘It was an unrelenting avalanche of exceptionally serious violence visited upon a defenceless woman.
‘You plainly intended to kill your wife. Not a shred of mercy was exhibited at the scene. You left her for dead in the street.’
Woodhall met his future wife through an online dating service in 2013.
He soon became possessive and would demand to see her phone when she came home from her job as an operation theatre technician.
Despite his controlling behaviour they married last year.
Before the wedding Mrs Woodhall was asked by a friend why she was going through with it.
She replied there ‘would be consequences if she didn’t’, said prosecutor Jamie Hill, QC.
Mother of three Mrs Woodhall – who was training to help care for hospital patients with Covid-19 – also spoke of an incident when he pushed her over and threw her phone down the stairs.
Mr Hill told the court her husband’s jealousy ‘did not stop him having interests in other women’. As the marriage deteriorated, Mrs Woodhall struck up a friendship with a man called Mark she met through a running club.
Fed up with her treatment by her husband she began a relationship, the court heard.
Mrs Woodhall walked out of the family home to live with her new boyfriend ‘two or three days’ after lockdown began in March.
She drove back to the marital home in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, to deal with a family issue on March 29.
When she went inside the defendant called the police and ‘tried to have her arrested for breaking lockdown restrictions’ but he was told by the operator it was not a police matter. She streamed a video online to explain to her friends he was trying to have her arrested.
Mrs Woodhall then filmed him through the window from outside the house while ‘providing a commentary on what he was doing’.
Woodhall snapped and stormed out of the house in only his shorts and brandishing a Gurkha ‘kukri’ knife – a type of machete.
He chased her and repeatedly stabbed her on the head and neck. Neighbours and two young children witnessed the murder from a nearby driveway.
A man ran across to tell him to stop. Woodhall told him she ‘deserved it’ and had been winding him up all day. Mrs Woodhall bled to death quickly at the scene and stood no chance, Sheffield Crown Court heard.
The killer – who was training to be a prison officer but was off work due to his marital problems – drove off but gave himself up later.
He refused to answer questions in police interviews but gave a statement to claim he was suffering from mental health problems.
Woodhall was told he must serve a minimum term of 18 years and six months before being considered for parole.
His wife was described in court as a ‘beautiful and talented daughter’ who worked at Rotherham General Hospital.
She landed her ‘dream job’ after obtaining 13 GCSEs, three A-levels and a degree at Sheffield Hallam University, father Paul Mason told the court.
After the hearing, Mrs Woodhall’s family said in a statement: ‘We would urge anyone who is suffering domestic violence, or who thinks someone they know may be, to tell someone about it.’
‘She stood no chance’