Gowing’s ‘perverted’ killer jailed for life
Clive Sharp, aged 46, harboured fantasies of imprisoning and killing women to satisfy his sexual desires before the murder of his victim, a Welsh court heard.
The night of the murder, Sharp earlier left another woman tied to her bed after she refused his demands.
He crept into Ms Gowing’s house late at night before tying her to the bed and repeatedly raping her.
After killing Ms Gowing, he dismembered her body.
Sharp had twice been jailed for sex offences before he attacked Ms Gowing.
The victim, described as a “vibrant, wonderful woman” had the “great misfortune” of being friends with Sharp’s then-girlfriend.
Sharp admitted murder last month and was yesterday jailed for life, with judge MrJustice Griffith Williams ordering he serve a minimum 37 years behind bars before being eligible for parole.
“This is a horrific, cold-hearted murder, carried out to gratify your perverted sexual desires,” the judge told Sharp.
Sharp has a string of previous convictions for sexual offences, beginning when he was just 16.
Earlier, the court heard Ms Gowing, from Co Offaly, had qualified as a vet and settled in the village of New Brighton, near Mold, North Wales with a friend, Jane Doyle. They both lived in a house provided by the vet’s practice where she worked.
After serving out his last sentence, Sharp married and there was no further offending the authorities knew of, the court heard. His marriage ended in 2011 and Sharp began a relationship with Ms Doyle, but kept his history from her.
He appeared “relatively charming and plausible” and lied about his background. He began to sleep over at the house Ms Gowing and Ms Doyle shared.
On Oct 12 last year, Ms Gowing was at home alone because Ms Doyle had gone back to Ireland to see her family for the weekend.
That night, Sharp went to spend time with another woman he was seeing. He tied her to the bed and left her there when she would not agree to “perform acts she did not want”.
He then broke into to Ms Gowing’s home in the early hours of the morning.
The next day, Sharp cleaned up the house and bought a hacksaw before torching Ms Gowing’s Renault Clio car in a local quarry to destroy evidence.
Sharp was arrested within days, his DNA found on recovered body parts.
Ms Gowing’s right hand and foot were found by police divers in a pond near Sealand on Oct 31, near Sharp’s family home. Two days later, an off-duty police officer found her torso, partially wrapped in plastic in a waterway near Chester.
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