Spurned man ‘executed’ woman in front of children

A MAN obsessed with an Irish mother-of-three broke into her home and executed her with a bolt gun in front of her terrified daughters.

John McFarlane, 40, who worked as a slaughterman, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 20 years at London’s Old Bailey.

Dubliner Mary Griffiths, 38, had called police just hours earlier to voice her fears that McFarlane was stalking her after she had rejected his advances. Arrangements had been made for a police officer to come round but the appointment was postponed until the next day. An investigation into Suffolk Police’s handling of the case has since been launched.

McFarlane took revenge after Ms Griffiths posted a Facebook message saying he was “delusional” if he believed they would ever have a relationship.

The pair, both part-time martial arts instructors, had been friends but fell out when she spurned his advances after he left his wife.

In May last year he smashed through the back door of her home in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, with an axe as she and her three daughters slept. He cut off the electricity before charging up the stairs.

McFarlane dragged Ms Griffiths from the bed where she had been sleeping with her 10-year-old child and tried to strangle her before shooting her in the shoulder with a gun usually used for stunning livestock. She got outside but was shot twice in the chest and died.

The killer was found later lying in a back garden having cut his arms in an apparent suicide attempt.

Outside court, the victim’s sister Louise Scannell, flanked by family members, wept as she described McFarlane as the “devil incarnate”.