John Mearns, a 68-year-old man serving a life sentence for strangling his lover to death in 2011, has complained that a Parole Board panel "irrationally" blocked his release from jail, despite experts saying he thinks he is the "victim".
Mearns killed mum-of-two Pauline Smith, 54, in her flat in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, after she said she wanted to return to her family. He received a life sentence and was told he would serve a minimum of 14 years before being eligible for parole.
Parole appeal dismissed
Dismissing Mearns' appeal for freedom, Stephen Dawson, on behalf of the Parole Board, said: "The panel took the view that [Mearns] accepted responsibility for taking the life of the victim, although this acceptance was qualified and [Mearns] did not accept that he committed the offence of murder."
Dawson added: "The panel also noted that [Mearns] remained of the view that he was the victim and blamed others for the outcome of the index offence."
Details of the killing
Mearns' trial was told he called an ambulance to Mrs Smith's home in Gainsborough Drive on October 27 to report he had been stabbed and feared his partner was dead. He later changed his story, admitting he had stabbed himself, but still claimed he had unwittingly caused her death while trying to restrain her and prevent her from attacking him.
The trial heard he pushed down so hard on his lover's throat that it fractured her voice box and caused bleeding around her eyes. Mrs Smith had wanted to return to her family, but Mearns became "possessive, jealous and controlling", it was claimed, and grew violent when he feared their "on-off relationship" was over.
999 call and sentencing
His murder trial heard a recording of a 999 call Mearns made the morning after Mrs Smith's death, in which he said she was supposed to have cooked him dinner, but "all I got was beans on toast". He also claimed she attacked him with a knife.
"I hope she's not dead. She was really nasty towards me," he said in the call. "I just don't know why she was like that. I think she has got a split personality. I tried to stop her sticking the knife in me and I don't know, I must have, I must have. I tried. I obviously tried to get her to stop trying to stab me."
In sentencing Mearns, Judge Anthony Bate said: "There was no evidence of planning or premeditation. The surprise and speed of the assault meant Pauline had no opportunity to defend herself before she was overpowered. You knelt on Pauline's stomach as she lay on the bed and applied sustained manual pressure to her neck. By then, you had formed the intent to kill her." He added: "In the aftermath of the killing you showed yourself to be a fluent and resourceful liar."
Judge Bate said the impact of Mrs Smith's death on her children was "profound", adding: "Her children have lost the support of their mother... The pain of her loss is profound."
After the sentence, Det Chief Insp George Barr, who led the investigation, said: "Mearns has taken a mother from her children and this is something they, and their family, will have to live with for the rest of their lives. I hope today's sentence brings them some comfort knowing that justice has been done."
