A killer who stabbed her boyfriend to death after a night out has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 18 years. Emma Walsh knifed partner Gary Morgan in the chest at her home on Lavan Close in Everton on the evening of April 10 this year.
It took jurors just one hour and 37 minutes to return a guilty verdict on Friday, October 14. The 31-year-old then returned to Liverpool Crown Court for her sentencing this morning.
Walsh sat with her back to the public gallery for the entirety of the hearing, the Liverpool Echo reports. 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. The relationship began well enough, and there will have been good times.
"But for much of its existence it was a tempestuous relationship marked by frequent arguments. I have no doubt much of these were due to your irrational jealousy and a desire to control him."
Judge Menary described Mr Morgan as a "kind, quiet and considerate man", adding: “You were making his life an utter misery. For little or no reason, your temper exploded and Gary Morgan was often on the receiving end.
"The reality is 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 obviously loved, you would end up killing him.
"You knew full well you had an explosive temper and were prone to using implements to cause harm. There were plenty of warnings, but you were unwilling 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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