Man guilty of killing ex-wife in row over child support

A British chef who murdered his ex-wife after she taunted him about paying child support on Facebook was facing a life sentence today.

Adam Mann battered Lisa Beverley, 30, with a hammer and then cut her neck with a knife, leaving her five-year-old son to find the scene of “unimaginable horror”.

She had no chance of surviving after being struck on the face, head, neck and body, the Old Bailey heard.

The little boy found her body the next day and rang his grandfather, Stephen Beverley, as he had been taught to do if his mother went into a diabetic coma.

“The scene that confronted him, and that had been found by his five-year-old grandson, was one of unimaginable horror,” said Jeremy Donne QC, prosecuting.

“His daughter lay in a pool of her own blood on the floor of her living room.

“She had been savagely beaten and stabbed to death.”

Mann, 29, of Springfield Road, Welling, Kent, was found guilty of murdering Miss Beverley on September 15 last year. He will be sentenced on October 4.

Jurors were still considering an allegation that Mann’s new partner, Elizabeth Kilgallon, 27, perverted justice by giving him a false alibi.

Outside court Mr Beverley, the victim’s father, said: “What he has done to my daughter was indescribable, I couldn’t put it into words.

“We’ll always miss her. She’ll always be part of us.”

The murder of his daughter had left he and his wife Lesley having to look after her son.

Mr Beverley said: “I can’t fathom anyone doing that to their own child, to leave them to find the body in that state.

“When I got there it was bad enough but for that little boy to find it, I can’t imagine what he went through and how he is coping with it now.”

The trial heard that Miss Beverley had been on Facebook at her home in Coupland Place, Plumstead, south London, but her use of the social networking site came to an abrupt end at 10pm.

The couple, who had been divorced in 2007, were involved in a bitter dispute which escalated in the weeks leading up to her death, the jury heard.

“The relationship had deteriorated sharply. Contact between the two, by 2009, had become increasingly bitter,” Mr Donne added.

Miss Beverley was trying to get Mann to pay towards their son’s upkeep through the Child Support Agency.

She told the CSA he had lied about being unemployed and he had been sent a letter demanding back-payments of around £400 (€480).

Miss Beverley had talked about this on Facebook. The day before her death, she had updated her profile.

The message said: “Now whose laughing? U’ve got done big time by the CS, so now leave us alone for good, your son hates u and so do I.”

Later that evening, she added: “He is a waste of space.”

The following day, hours before Miss Beverley’s death, Mann had telephoned the CSA saying he had no money and would not pay, said Mr Donne.