Soldier Killed Ex-Girlfriend In Front Of Son

A soldier who stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death and then stamped on her face in front of their four-year-old son has been jailed for life.

The youngster cried: "Daddy's killed Mummy," after Ian Lowe, 25, killed Leanne McNuff, 24, at her home in Droylsden, Greater Manchester, in March.

Lowe will serve a minimum of 28 years in jail after a jury at Manchester Crown Court found him guilty of her murder.

He admitted her manslaughter but claimed a defence of a loss of self-control after he discovered she had an abortion without telling him and also had an affair.

The lance corporal in 1st Battalion the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, based at Catterick, North Yorkshire, was also upset she planned to move away with the son and had sold his pet dog, Princess.

Sentencing him, Mr Justice MacDuff said the jury was not fooled by his explanation and that he had gone around to her house to "get even with her" by blaming her for the mess he had got himself into.

He said: "She was in the sanctuary of her own home and you committed a wicked attack on her in the presence of your four-year-old son.

"You broke into that house, you literally kicked the door down. You ran up the stairs and you stabbed her to death with a knife and then stamped on her face.

"It was a frenzied attack. Within a space of less than half a minute you had inflicted 10 different wounds, virtually all of them when she was lying defenceless on the floor.

"The fear and pain she must have felt in her dying minutes is unimaginable. You are evil and dangerous."