The father of Clair Ablewhite has recalled the harrowing moment he found his daughter 'slaughtered in a pool of blood' in her cottage - and says the family have been 'completely destroyed' by the tragedy. Devastated Graham Tinkley found his daughter's body at her home in Colston Bassett, an affluent Nottinghamshire village which is ironically ranked as one of the most desirable in the UK.
The shocking discovery triggered a police murder investigation which made national headlines and an inquiry which was blown open with CCTV footage obtained at the property of neighbour who was working abroad. The devastated parents of mum-of-three Ms Ablewhite have spoken exclusively to Nottinghamshire Live a day after her killer John Jessop was sentenced to life in prison at Nottingham Crown Court on Wednesday, January 4.
Mr Tinkley, aged 75, has nightmares and struggles to sleep - and the family have been dealt another heartbreaking blow after Ms Ablewhite's mum was diagnosed with cancer following the tragedy. Mr Tinkley, of Cropwell Bishop, found the body at around 6.20pm on February 26 last year.
He called the emergency services and performed CPR on his daughter before the police arrived. "It was absolutely terrible. It is all still a nightmare," he said.
"We are thinking about it all the time, we cannot even go for a walk. Our lives have been destroyed. My wife got cancer since that happened, because she smoked so many cigarettes to cope with it all."
Ms Ablewhite's mum Sandra Tinkley was diagnosed with cancer last October and has had part of her lung removed. Mr Tinkley said: "She has had 20 percent of her lung taken away and she is on chemotherapy at the moment."
The parents said the family were "living a nightmare" after the murder of their daughter. Mr Tinkley added: "Clair moved to the new place because she wanted a new start in life after her divorce. She was very popular and loved, and there were over 400 people who attended her funeral."
Brought up in Cropwell Bishop, Ms Ablewhite had married at the age of 19 and had spent most of her life working on the farm she shared with her husband. They had three boys together. When the marriage ended, she moved out of the family home and set up a new life for herself in Colston Bassett.
In January 2022, she started renting a small cottage in Hall Lane and was becoming a successful entrepreneur - setting up her own dog walking and dog boarding business. Her friends and clients described her as “sociable, well-liked, who would stop and talk to anyone”.
Jessop had formed a relationship with Ms Ablewhite but she ended things not long before she was murdered. But in February 2022, he had not heard from her and set off on his bike to sort things out.
Nottingham Crown Court was told how Jessop cycled 18 miles from Newark, stopped along the way for a pasty - and that he subsequently cut the throat of Ms Ablewhite at her cottage, and then cycled home. He pleaded guilty to murder at a previous court hearing in October. Ms Ablewhite was fatally wounded on February 25.
And, on Wednesday (January 4), Jessop, aged 26 and formerly of Regal Lodge, Sherwood Avenue, in Newark, was jailed for life. Judge Stuart Rafferty, King's Counsel, set the minimum term at 17 years and eight months, taking into account the number of days Jessop had already spent in police custody.
But the parents of Ms Ablewhite say the length of the sentence seems too lenient. Mr Tinkley said: "He [Jessop] had no remorse. He actually planned to do it that night. It was caught on video all her screaming for two minutes when she was attacked. The sentence is just not long enough.
"He brutally murdered her. He destroyed our lives, my wife got cancer. At the end of the day, 17 years and eight months is not a life sentence. He will still be young when he gets out. I do not want him to ever get out of prison ever again. Because he could do that to somebody else."
Mrs Tinkley, 72, who has been in hospital twice for chemotherapy, said: "I knew something was wrong, but Clair's murder just brought it up quicker. When we first found out what happened, cigarettes and booze came out to help us cope."
She said she was smoking around ten cigarettes a day to help her cope after the tragedy. "It was just a way of coping at the time with what happened," she added.
"Sometimes I catch myself thinking 'it is not true'. What I found hard was that she was there from Friday night when he did it right through some of Saturday, when we realised she would lay down there all those hours on her own. I just could not get that out of my mind."
While she is grateful that her daughter's killer did "not get away with it", Mrs Tinkley said she was hoping that Jessop would have got at least 25 years. "Nobody can imagine what my husband went through. We are living a nightmare and it will never go away."
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