Toyboy who rode bike 34 miles to kill ex-lover, 47
A FITNESS fanatic stabbed his ex- lover to death at her home in an upmarket village six days after she ended their relationship.
John Jessop cycled 17 miles each way to carry out the crime, dumping Clair Ablewhite’s phone in a stream in a bid to cover his tracks, then played for his tennis club in a match just days later.
But the 26-year-old – who had also left his own handset at home ‘to provide an alibi’ – was caught after stopping to buy a pasty on his way to Mrs Ablewhite’s home in affluent Colston Bassett, Nottinghamshire.
From the shop’s security footage, police were able to match a zip on his jacket to an image of him caught on CCTV by his victim’s neighbour.
Animal lover Mrs Ablewhite, 47, was found by her father in a pool of blood at the rented £300,000 cottage she had moved to following the end of her 28-year marriage.
Graham Tinkley said at the time he had gone to the property in February 2021 because one of Mrs Ablewhite’s three children, who were aged 16 to 27, had been told she hadn’t visited her horses at nearby stables.
Mrs Ablewhite had moved to the cottage, where she had set up a dog walking and boarding business, only six weeks earlier. She had met Jessop on the Facebook Dating website the previous September and he had visited her at the cottage before the relationship ended – due in part to her concern at their age gap. Factory worker Jessop was ordered to serve a minimum of 17 years and eight months of a life sentence imposed at Nottingham Crown Court yesterday after he previously pleaded guilty to the murder. Detective Inspector Mel Crutchley, who led the investigation, said: ‘The
attack [Jessop] inflicted on Clair was brutal and relentless, causing catastrophic injuries which finally led to her death.’ She said that just at the time Mr Tinkley found his daughter’s body, Jessop was at a pub in his home town of Newark, Nottinghamshire, with friends.
Christopher Donnellan KC, prosecuting, said phone messages revealed how Jessop had continually pressed Mrs Ablewhite for an explanation as to why her feelings had ‘cooled’ towards him.
Mrs Ablewhite was attacked shortly after she returned from a night out with friends. She suffered knife wounds to her neck and chest, as well as a series of blunt force and defensive injuries – but Jessop left barely a trace of DNA at the scene. From the neighbour’s CCTV footage, officers matched his Adidas trainers to a bloody footprint at the scene. They also noticed Jessop was wearing his rucksack with both straps over the shoulders, suggesting he had walked or cycled there.
Officers began trawling CCTV and spotted a man in black on a bike with a faulty reflector, which helped them track Jessop’s cross- county journey. They then found Mrs Ablewhite’s phone and Jessop stood out as a contact who had not called officers with information. He was arrested 11 days after the murder.
Peter Joyce KC, defending, said Jessop had ‘had a limited relationship with the opposite sex’, adding: ‘He did have feelings for this woman,
‘Her feelings had cooled’
and it all went horribly wrong that night.’ Sentencing, Judge Stuart Rafferty KC said Mrs Ablewhite was ‘perfectly entitled’ to end her relationship with Jessop.
He added: ‘I have no doubt she told you to leave. I have no doubt the frustration you felt about that caused you to attack her. You finally were showing her that things were to be on your terms, or not at all.’
A month before the murder, Colston Bassett was named as one of the 54 ‘most desirable’ places to live in Britain by a national newspaper which hailed its Stilton and location in ‘foodie country’.