A “sadistic” roofer who stabbed his pregnant girlfriend more than 40 times with a pair of scissors in a “frenzied” attack has had his sentence reduced by the Court of Appeal.
Liam Taylor killed Irish-born Ailish Walsh, who was almost 23 weeks pregnant, by stabbing her 46 times and hitting her head with a dumbbell at their flat in Hackney, east London, on December 15, 2022.
The 38-year-old was jailed for life with a minimum term of imprisonment of 27 years after he pleaded guilty to Ms Walsh’s murder at the Old Bailey in August 2023.
But on Wednesday, appeal judges in London said the sentence should be reduced to a life sentence with a minimum term of imprisonment of 25 years.
Taylor’s trial heard the pair had a “volatile relationship” and that he was upset about 28-year-old Ms Walsh’s latest pregnancy because he had two girls and wanted a boy.
The victim was discovered covered in blood and unconscious by her own father in her bedroom in Rectory Road, Stoke Newington.
Andrew Morris, representing Taylor, said the sentencing judge incorrectly used words like sadistic and sexual to categorise Taylor’s sentence but there was “no factual basis that his conduct was sexual in nature”.
But Mr Morris said that though Ms Walsh was stabbed in the genitals and abdomen, there was no sexual element to her murder.
The barrister added: “The attack was ferocious, with a large number of stab wounds using two weapons.
“The judge used words like sadistic and sexual, which were chosen in order to meet the sentencing tariff.
“Only as the case developed and changed, it was simply not enough to make for such a high starting point to his sentence.”
Mr Morris also said Taylor, who has previous convictions for attacking female members of his family, had not intended to kill the female foetus and that the “frenzied attack was a loss of temper, on the spur of the moment”.
Jane Osborne KC, representing the Crown Prosecution Service, said the wounds on Ms Walsh’s abdomen “went directly upwards” which “was a clear attempt to inflict direct injury on the foetus he knew the deceased was carrying, and who he knew was his”.
She added: “This was not just an attack on a pregnant woman, but an attack on a pregnant woman to kill both her and the foetus she was carrying.”
Mrs Justice Thornton, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde and Mr Justice Nicklin, said Taylor had “left Ms Walsh to die and made no attempt to contact the emergency services” afterwards.
The judge said the victim was found by her father “with the 15kg dumbbell on her leg, scissors on the floor and blood all over the carpet”.
She added that Taylor, who had cocaine, cannabis and alcohol in his system, was arrested the morning after the attack.
Though she said the sentencing judge was “entitled to find many, very serious aggravating features” in the case, there was no sexual element to the offending, allowing a reduction in the sentence.
She said: “This was a brutal, savage assault.
“The attack had elements that were sadistic in nature, and possibly Ms Walsh knew what was happening to her.”
Taylor has previous convictions for attacking female members of his family, and was jailed for 12 months for assaulting his mother with a metal pole and cautioned for headbutting his sister when she was 16.
The trial heard that on the night Ms Walsh was murdered, a female friend had received a WhatsApp message from her saying she was trying to get Taylor out of the flat after catching him taking drugs.
The female friend later called Ms Walsh, hearing her “screaming” and Taylor’s voice saying, “you can’t do that to me”.
Ms Walsh was later discovered covered in blood and unconscious in her bedroom by her father, the court heard.
CCTV footage showed Taylor had left the flat after the attack and then gone to a pub for a drink.
