Life for jealous lover who stabbed girlfriend

A 34-year-old man who met his girlfriend through the internet was jailed for life today for her murder in a frenzied knife attack.

David Thomas McCord from Alford Park, Dundonald, east Belfast, admitted murdering Nichola Dickson, who was stabbed to death in the bedroom of her Ballycarry home near Whitehead, Co Antrim, in January last year.

The victim was found by her mother lying in bed with a kitchen knife plunged into her heart.

Ballymena Crown Court, sitting in Belfast, heard that McCord was lying across his dead girlfriend’s body when she was found.

McCord pleaded guilty to the murder last month and was brought before the judge today for sentence.

Richard Weir QC, for the Crown, said the couple had met in April of 2002 and by June that year had started living with her in the home of her father and brother to which she had moved after separating from her husband.

He said by October the couple’s relationship started to show signs of stress and there was a history of Nichola either evicting him or him leaving in “high dudgeon”.

He said there was “turbulence in that relationship” and the turbulence increased over the weekend prior to her death early on a Tuesday morning.

He said the exact time of death was unknown but was believed to have been after she had phoned her employer shortly before 5am to say she would not be going to work and after her father and brother left for work just before 7am.

Ms Dickson was found by her mother when she called at the house in the early afternoon.

Mr Weir said when the mother walked into the girl’s bedroom she found her daughter lying partially covered by a blanket on the bed.

“A knife had been plunged into her chest and the accused was lying on the bed and had his head on her abdomen.

“There was blood on his face. He opened his eyes and looked at her and she pulled him off.”

The court heard that McCord was groggy and had been taken to hospital having taken what was believed to have been 80 paracetamol and 50 diazepam.

He had not been expected to survive because of liver damage, but had recovered the court heard.

Mr Weir said the victim had died from strangulation and stab wounds to the chest, one of which had penetrated her heart. There were also knife wounds to her arms which had been inflicted after death.

Mr Weir revealed that when interviewed in hospital soon after arrival McCord had said: “I didn’t mean to murder her, we loved each other so much. I just put a belt around her neck and stabbed her, I didn’t mean it to go that far.”

The court was told a belt was found under the bed which was covered in Nichola’s blood and had been used as a ligature.

Defence counsel, Mr Terrence McDonald QC, described the murder as a “crime passionale” and said his client had been reluctant to admit even to himself what he had done.

The court was told that Ms Dickson maintained a good relationship with her estranged husband and that the accused had been jealous of it.

Mr McDonald said the couple had been unable to deal with their turbulent relationship in a mature way.

He said his client had committed a “truly dreadful crime” and while he had pleaded guilty he was simultaneously reluctant to admit his guilt.

It was “a crime related to the instability to this relationship”.

Judge Mr Justice Coghlin said: “This killing was almost certainly performed in a fit of ferocious jealousy.”

He said it was “wholly unjustified jealousy”.

He said it was reasonable to determine that McCord had taken the drugs because of a realisation of what he had done.

Sentencing the accused to 11 years the judge was at pains to explain the term in the wake of recent criticisms over the lightness of some sentences.

He pointed out that while the mandatory sentence for murder remained life imprisonment the task of the trial judge was to fix the minimum term the offender must serve without remission before his case may be reviewed.

He said he had taken 12 years as his starting point and reduced it by one year because the accused had pleaded guilty.

The murdered girl’s family were in court for the sentencing and afterwards her father Philip Smyth said: “I think the law is an ass, something needs to be done.

“The judge said in England it would be 15 years and that is where we think the starting point should be.”

He added: “This man has removed from us the most precious thing, our only daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, cousin and friend.

“Everyone has been totally devastated. No-one has been unaffected.

“This man is going to be out and running the streets in a few years, we will bear this pain until the day we die.”