A court has heard that a student sent desperate WhatsApp messages to her friend moments before she was stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend. Molly McLaren, 23, was attacked with a kitchen knife by Joshua Stimpson, 26, as she sat in her parked car after a workout in Chatham, Kent, last year.
In the minutes before the stabbing, Molly's friend Amy Lee warned her not to communicate with Stimpson, calling him a 'freak' and telling her to 'stay away from him'. Molly had told Ms Lee she felt like she was looking over her shoulder 'all the time', but her final message was sent at 11.02am on June 29, 2017, and she never read the warnings that followed.
Stimpson, of Wouldham, near Rochester, denies murder but has admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The court heard he and Molly met through Tinder and dated for seven months before she ended the relationship on June 17.
On the day of the killing, Molly sent Ms Lee an image of Stimpson exercising next to her at the gym. She left PureGym at 11.01am and was attacked as she sat in her parked Citroen C2. Prosecutor Philip Bennetts QC alleged Stimpson had been following Molly's movements and 'carefully considered when to execute her'.
The court heard Stimpson had bought the knife two days earlier at a local Asda. Molly screamed as he landed a flurry of blows. By 11.09am, he was standing by her car and was arrested by police. In the 12 days before the killing, Stimpson had twice been warned by police to remove derogatory social media posts about Molly.
