Jealous father is jailed for stabbing ex-partner

A jealous father who stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death in the Black Country following a two-year relationship of violence has been jailed for life.

David Palmer, 40, was found guilty of the murder of Kerry Smith at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday.

He was told he will serve a minimum of 23 years in jail following the jury's verdict.

Palmer had admitted manslaughter, but denied murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility. It however, took the jury of six men and six women just 80 minutes to find the father of two guilty.

During the trial the jury heard Palmer of Mincing Lane, Rowley Regis had waited for Miss Smith at a bus stop in Blackheath High Street at around 11.30am on the morning of July 31 last year – a bus stop he knew she used to travel to her mother's house.

He had then followed her into a shop, and confronted her. Witnesses described the young woman trying to escape Palmer. He was demanding to see their child, and was blocking her path, trying to stop her escape.

When she refused to listen to him he had plunged a kitchen knife into the 29-year-old three times. After leaving Miss Smith who was of Hanover Road, Rowley Regis lying bleeding on the pavement, he then ran off, punching an innocent bystander as he fled.

The court had heard he had a previous conviction for assaulting Miss Smith, and about a fortnight before her death he had been arrested for harassment.

When sentencing Palmer, Judge John Warner said: "I am quite sure your intention that day was to kill her. As for the knife, you said you had it with you for self protection, I don't accept that."

West Midlands Police Det Insp Simon Astle, said: "Palmer will not be eligible for parole until 2035 and remain behind bars after that time if he is still deemed a potential danger to the public.

"David Palmer is a jealous, controlling and violent man. Armed with a knife he went to an area where he knew Kerry would be and stabbed her before running off and leaving her bleeding to death on the pavement. He intended to kill her and in doing so finally exerted the ultimate control over her."