A woman who fatally stabbed her boyfriend in the heart after a night in the pub has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years.
Emma Walsh knifed Gary Morgan to death at her home on Lavan Close in Everton on the evening of April 10 this year. On Friday last week, she was unanimously convicted of murder by a jury after only one hour and 37 minutes of deliberations.
The 31-year-old returned to Liverpool Crown Court this morning, Monday, to be sentenced. Walsh sat turned away from the public gallery at all times during the hearing.
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Sentencing, the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary KC said: "You and he had been in a relationship for about a year before that fatal night. It began well enough, and there will have been good times.
"But for much of its existence it was a tempestuous relationship marked by frequent, unpleasant arguments. I have no doubt that many of these were the result of your extreme, irrational jealousy and your consequent desire to dominate Gary Morgan's life and to restrict his movements."
Judge Menary described Mr Morgan as a "kind, quiet and considerate man" who was "loved by all", adding: “You were making his life an utter misery. For little or no reason, but typically when you were drunk, your temper explodes and Gary Morgan was often on the receiving end.
"The reality is that Gary Morgan posed no threat to you at all that night. It is a tragic irony that so many members of his family, and Gary Morgan himself, predicted that if he stayed with you - a woman he so obviously loved - you would end up killing him.
"You knew full well that you had an explosive temper and were prone to using implements to cause harm. There had been plenty of warnings in the past, but you were unwilling or unable to change."
A three-week trial previously heard that the couple first met in March 2021, when Walsh contacted 36-year-old Mr Morgan - who had his own paving and landscaping business - over Facebook. But their year-long relationship was marred by domestic abuse.
She had attacked him with the "tools of his trade", swinging a rake at him and leaving him with a "big gash on his eyebrow" after an attack with a spirit level. Mr Morgan was regularly seen with black eyes, and even bite marks across his body.
The dad to two daughters, from Prescot, was stabbed in the neck with a butter knife and reported in text messages revealed after his death that she had spat at him, punched him, refused to let him shower, "smashed a glass and come at him with it" and "threatened to send Crocky heads to his mum's house". He told a friend that she had "tried to bite his nose off", while his own father had witnessed her throw a Subway sandwich at him and kick him in the head.
On Sunday, April 10, Walsh and Mr Morgan went to the Belmont pub to watch Liverpool FC's 2-2 draw with Manchester City on the television before staying for karaoke night. They returned to the bungalow on Lavan Close at around 10pm, where she stabbed and killed the tradesman in the chest in a "drink-fuelled, explosive rage".
Afterwards, she claimed that he had he had been attacked by "some fella in town" before suggesting that one of her former partners may have been responsible. The murderer then changed her story to say he had sustained his fatal injury after falling onto a broken shard of plastic from a bluetooth speaker.
Walsh belatedly confessed that she had indeed been responsible, but claimed that she had done so in self-defence after he began throttling her. The mum to two adopted boys had a history of attacking her boyfriends with weapons.
This included plunging a knife through the wrist of one, severing an artery. Walsh later pulled a knife on another partner and threatened to stab him.
Richard Pratt KC, defending, said: “What is apparent is that drink played a part in this relationship on both sides. This is not a case where you can safely conclude there was an intention to kill - there was clearly a lack of premeditation.
"The court had heard evidence of a long history of suffering from anxiety and depression. It is right to say the defendant had an unsettled childhood, moving from fostering placements to fostering placements."
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