Axeman gets 32 years for killing his ex
A ‘BULLY’ who claimed he accidentally killed his ex-girlfriend when throwing an axe has been jailed for life.
The family of 33-year-old Katie Kenyon appealed for others with concerns about controlling relationships to contact police after the sentencing of Andrew Burfield, 51, who murdered and buried the motherof-two in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire, on April 22.
Burfield, of Burnley, initially denied murder and told officers he had accidentally killed Miss Kenyon, from Padiham, when he threw an axe after she bet him he could not hit a drinks can with it.
Preston Crown Court heard that Burfield killed Miss Kenyon in Gisburn Forest and buried her there.
A post-mortem examination revealed that Miss Kenyon, who began a relationship with Burfield in 2019, had suffered at least 12 head injuries.
Burfield changed his plea to guilty on the third day of his trial, in what judge Mr Justice Goose described as ‘a final recognition that your game plan had failed’.
He was sentenced to a minimum of 32 years in prison.
Outside court, Detective Chief Inspector Allen Davies said: ‘Mr Burfield is a bully and controlled Katie throughout the relationship. She expressed concern throughout that relationship that Mr Burfield represented a risk to her and she expressed that to her family.
‘The family and myself would like to appeal to anybody who is out there to say if you are in a relationship and you have concerns about your partner or if you have concerns about anybody else, I would request and the family would request that you contact the police.
‘They’re very keen to ensure that nobody else is harmed in the way that Katie was harmed on this occasion.’