Addict murdered woman, 73, ‘to fund one night of drug-taking’

A DRUG addict who murdered a 73-year-old massage parlour owner by stabbing her 70 times in her living room before stealing her sports car has been told he will serve a minimum of 35 years in prison.

Lee Fueloep, 40, refused to appear at Sheffield Crown Court to hear a judge jail him for life for the murder of Jill Hibberd and say: “The brutal fact of this case is that a woman was brutally murdered in her home to fund one night of drug-taking.”

The judge, Mrs Justice O’Farrell, said she believed that Fueloep did not intend to kill Ms Hibberd when he arrived at her newly-built detached house in Wombwell, South Yorkshire, on May 30.

She said she thought the defendant went to try to intimidate the pensioner with a knife and take her car.

She said: “But Jill Hibberd was not a woman who was easily intimidated. She stood up to him. He panicked and lost control and inflicted a ferocious and savage attack on an elderly and unarmed woman.”

The jury, which found Fueloep guilty of murder on Friday, heard how he stabbed Ms Hibberd so many times she had injuries to her body, face, neck, arms and legs, and damage to her kidneys, liver, lung and spleen.

The judge said some of the injuries were “gratuitous” and must have been inflicted after she finished putting up any resistance and, probably, after she had died.

The court heard how Fueloep rifled through the dead pensioner’s handbag and drove off in her red Audi TT, worth about £26,000, which was parked outside. He sold the car within hours and used the cash to buy a large quantity of heroin and crack cocaine, which he consumed with other users at his nearby home.

Prosecutors told the jury that Ms Hibberd owned the Fantasia massage parlour in Sheffield.

Fueloep, of Willow Garth, Wombwell, was a drug-user known for knocking on doors in Wombwell begging for cash to fuel his habit.

The court heard he had 20 previous convictions for 85 offences.

Another defendant, Andrew Ashby, 26, of Woolgreaves Avenue, Wakefield, admitted handling the stolen Audi and was jailed for 32 months.