A man who walked free from court after threatening to set his ex-girlfriend on fire went on to murder her two weeks later.
Robert Massey screamed vile abuse at Jacqueline Forest after attempting to kick down her front door in mid-august, the Liverpool Echo reports.
Just 17 days later, he strangled Jacqueline to death before stabbing her and writing insults all over her body with a pen. The 43-year-old defendant had been in a relationship with the 49-year-old victim, who was known to loved ones as Jaki, since the summer of 2020 and had stayed at her home on Piele Road in Haydock, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
Massey was previously handed an 18-month community order at Liverpool Magistrates' Court on August 15 this year after assaulting Jacqueline, and given a restraining order from attending her address for 28 days.
Prosecutor Andrew Ford KC said two days before his court appearance, Massey had gone to his victim's flat armed with an iron bar and started kicking down the door. He took her bank card before covering Jacqueline in vodka and threatened to set her alight as he fled the address.
Video footage recorded through the keyhole of a next door flat shows Massey repeatedly walking back from the door before taking running kicks at it for several minutes. In the clip shown to the court, Jacqueline can be heard screaming in the background before she finally gives in to his demands and opens the door.
Defence lawyer Daniel Travers said the "spilling of the vodka was reckless during a struggle" and that no "threat to ignite" had been made by Massey.
Despite the ban, the couple met with each other in a park over the August bank holiday weekend and spent time together over the next few days, mostly at Ms Forest's home. At roughly 7pm on Tuesday, August 30, she was in the shower while Massey was in her bed.
He started looking through her phone and came across messages which "suggested she had been unfaithful with two other men" - namely Anthony Murphy and Graham Roberts, the latter of whom was his "best friend". Massey later admitted to police that he "saw red" and assaulted Ms Forest when she got out of the shower, grabbing her by the neck and "straddling her" on the bed.
He repeatedly punched her head and face before putting both hands around her neck and squeezing. Massey said he "didn't stop" until she "went floppy". He then headbutted her and shouted: "Was it worth it? Was it worth s***ging them two people?"
In what Mr Ford described as an act of "macabre and sadistic" behaviour, the killer then used a towel to cover her dead body. He also placed a watch on her wrist, added jewellery on top of her, put Moschino shoes on her feet, placed a handbag over her arm and put sunglasses on her. Massey later told authorities that he had "ruined her beautiful face and decided to put some nice things on her because she always used to look pretty".
He tearfully added that he "wanted to make her look better, because he had ruined her face and he still loved her". However, after finding a pregnancy test nearby, he grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed her in the womb - however a pathologist later confirmed that she was not pregnant at the time of her death.
Massey then took a green pen and wrote "my best mate" next to the stab wound before scrawling "slag" on one thigh and the word "baby" on the other. Massey and Ms Forest had been consuming vodka mixed with Fanta beforehand, and he continued to drink in the property after committing the murder.
He also took his victims bank card and withdrew £500 from a bank machine at an Asda store in Haydock, £400 of which he spent on cocaine. A further £500 withdrawal was made in the early hours, with the card then used at Mollie's Bar in St Helens town centre.
Massey then began to "plan his revenge" on Mr Murphy and Mr Roberts, walking into St Helens and stopping into the Duke pub. Following this, he took a taxi into Liverpool where he continued drinking in a bar.
Massey had also brought Ms Forest's phone with him and posted to her Facebook profile at around midnight.
He then started to message Mr Murphy from his own phone at roughly 4.30am, and in a text sent at 6.15am told him: "I'll come for those you love". Massey was witnessed getting out of a cab in Haydock at 6.45am, at which point he returned to the flat and had a nine minute phone call with Mr Murphy.
From 8am onwards, he began messaging his next victim from Ms Forest's phone - "giving the impression she was sending these messages". In one, he said: "Don't worry, he won't risk getting nicked again."
Around the same time, Massey began texting Mr Murphy's brother's partner - believing her to be Mr Murphy's own girlfriend. Massey said Mr Murphy had been "f***ing my fiancée and now she's pregnant", adding in another text: "She thought I was out for the night, but I came home early.
"He jumped out of the window, which I'm really impressed with because we are three floors up. Just so you know, Anthony is properly dead now - no one f***s my fiancée."
Massey later dumped Ms Forest's phone in a nearby field. Mr Murphy had met Ms Forest while both were employed at a Sainsbury's store in the area and on one occasion "engaged in sexual activity", during which her boyfriend had arrived home - leading to him escaping out via the balcony in order to remain unseen.
Mr Murphy arrived at Ms Forest's flat at roughly 8.30am on Wednesday, August 31. Massey had turned on the shower and pretended Ms Forest was in there. His adversary pleaded with him, saying "please don't kill me".
Massey then led him into the bedroom and showed him Ms Forest's body, telling him "look what you've f***ing caused". He then started attacking him with the same blade, "going for his ears".
The murderer later admitted to police that he was trying to slice off Mr Murphy's ears and was "intending to throw him out of the window". The victim was stabbed three times to the back and twice in the neck, but was able to escape to a neighbouring flat for help.
Mr Murphy was rushed to Aintree Hospital and underwent surgery, having lost 20% of his blood. He remained in hospital for a week.
Merseyside Police found Ms Forest's body shortly after 9am. The apartment was filled with steam as the shower had been left on, while the blood-stained knife was discovered on the sofa.
Massey was subsequently spotted walking through the streets covered in blood with no top on. At 9.15am, he bought vodka from an off-licence on Clipsley Lane and requested to drink on the premises, but was refused.
Shortly after 9.30am, he got on the bus to St Helens town centre before hailing a taxi, travelling to Prescot and drinking in pubs in the area before getting another bus to Wavertee. Massey stopped at a corner shop to buy a knife, but finding that there wasn't any, bought a pair of scissors instead.
He flagged down acab to take him to Mr Roberts' workplace at the end of the East Lancs Road in Norris Green. The pair had known each other around 20 years, but Mr Roberts and Ms Forest had a "one night stand" while she and Massey were split up.
He had called to confront his friend around a week previously and was "angry", but had not made any threats. Massey walked straight into the offices at 6.30pm, half an hour after Mr Roberts had started a night shift, and chased him out of the building while brandishing the scissors.
Massey said "I'm gonna kill you if you think you can get away with this" and struck him with the scissors out on the street, causing him to fall to the floor. A witness also heard him say: "I don't care, I'm doing 20 years anyway - I've killed two people already."
Mr Roberts managed to disarm his attacker and jumped into a passing car, instructing the driver to take him to a nearby pub. He had suffered stab wounds to his right arm, chest and behind his right ear.
Massey was arrested while walking down Long Lane "sweating and smelling of drink", with blood on his t-shirt. After being arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder, he replied: "I hope it was two murders.
"What would you do if your best mate was shagging your Mrs? I would have thrown the f***ing c*** out of the window.
"My best mate s***ged my wife, so I f***ing did them. I'm getting done for two, might as well be three."
During the interview, Massey added: "It's nice to get it off my chest. I don't want the family to have to go through a trial.
"They must be devastated. I loved them to bits."
Massey said he had stabbed Mr Roberts in the back "like he done to me" and accused him of "sharking her" in messages on Facebook. He said that he had been trying to "come off" cocaine, and said he had also been unfaithful during his relationship with Ms Forest.
His previous convictions include a four-year prison sentence in 2018 for swallowing packages of drugs in order to smuggle them into the UK. Massey was released from jail in May 2020.
Mr Travers told the court that his client was "clearly preoccupied" by the thought of Ms Forest being pregnant, but "did not actually believe she was pregnant". He added: "Those listening will have been appalled by what are undoubtedly three extremely serious offences.
"He was candid, both on arrest and also in interview. Mr Massey is genuinely remorseful - he did not want to cause any further upset to the family of the deceased.
"It is exceptional for someone to have made full admissions and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity for three offences where there is an intent to kill. Mr Massey did everything he could after his arrest to start making very small steps to making amends for his actions."
Massey pleaded guilty to murder, two counts of attempted murder and possession of a bladed article in a public place and was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 28 years. Sentencing, Judge Brian Cummings KC said: "I express my remorse and condolences for all of the victims in this case and all of those connected to them.
"This was undoubtedly a brutal murder. It was apparent that the victim, I regret to say, must have endured significant mental and physical suffering before she died.
"I accept that there was no premeditation, but I do not consider that to be a particularly significant factor given that the trigger for your murderous attack appears to have been information you gained when scrolling through the victim's mobile phone. That behaviour is an indication of controlling behaviour on your part.
"I accept there is an element of remorse, but your explanations and admissions - full and candid though they were - appear to me to have been accompanied at all times by an air of justification, as if you were in a position that there was nothing else you could have done. What you did, you did by choice."
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