David Barraclough, 45, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 21-and-a-half years after admitting the murder of his wife, Carolann, 37. Leeds Crown Court heard he attacked her with a claw hammer while she lay in bed at their home in Horbury, Wakefield, on February 20, before hiding her body in a chest freezer.
Killer confessed at police station
Newly released footage showed Barraclough walking into Normanton Police Station near Wakefield on March 5 and asking to discuss a “very serious private matter”. When a receptionist asked what the matter concerned, Barraclough replied: “I have killed my wife”. After confirming what she had heard, the shocked staff member took his details and instructed him to wait, The Mirror reports.
Further police footage captured the final sighting of Mrs Barraclough, showing the mother-of-three returning to the family home on February 19, the day before she was killed. Barraclough did not attend his sentencing hearing on October 9, having told his legal team he was “sick of all the legal arguments”.
Attack and concealment
The court heard that Barraclough struck his wife in the head before binding her wrists, knees and ankles, placing a plastic bag over her head and sealing it with tape. He emptied a chest freezer in the downstairs utility room, moved its contents into the fridge and dumped Carolann's body inside. She was wrapped, bound, in a duvet cover, with a black bin liner secured around her head and neck.
Examinations conducted after her death showed she had suffered five separate wounds to her head, including a large, deep injury which exposed her skull. “She could only have survived for a short time while under attack”, explained prosecutor Andrew Haslam KC. Barraclough lied to their children, telling them Carolann had gone to hospital and “might be there for a while but might not be back”.
Pretended to be his wife
Barraclough also pretended to be Carolann, exchanging text messages with her daughter after her death, Judge Andrew Stubbs KC said. He tried to cover his tracks by ending a message from Carolann's phone to a friend claiming she was unwell before resetting her phone and deleting conversations with her from his own device.
While Carolann's body was stored in the freezer, Barraclough drained her bank account of hundreds of pounds before scouring the internet for escorts and joining dating apps to send explicit messages to other women. He “plainly had a sexual motive”, according to Mr Haslam, who noted that just 11p remained in the couple's joint account and Barraclough had only 4p in his own when he handed himself in on March 5.
Family statement and sentencing
A family statement said: “For two weeks, [the children] were told their mum was in hospital when she was in their own home with them. That is unimaginable for any child to process.” In a victim impact statement, Carolann's sister, Sarah Rowley, described her as “the bright light of our family”. She said: “Her children were the centre of her world. She loved being a mum. The void of her absence is agonisingly loud.”
Ms Rowley said the couple's children had been left “completely traumatised” by the killing. The family later suffered a further tragedy when Carolann's father, David Rowley, died from a heart attack on September 17. She said: “The pain of losing Carolann and our father David will be with us every minute of every day of our lives.”
Barraclough admitted murder at Leeds Crown Court on October 6, having previously denied the charge. His barrister, Sean Larkin KC, said the fatal attack followed “a spur of the moment argument” and that his client accepted killing his wife with a hammer. Sentencing him in his absence, Judge Andrew Stubbs KC said: “The defendant's behaviour displayed a callous disregard for his wife, her children, his children and her friends.” The judge said Barraclough had “span a web of lies and deceit” in the aftermath of the killing and praised the police investigation, carried out in what he described as “very difficult and upsetting circumstances”. Barraclough was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum term of 21-and-a-half years.
