Man who killed pregnant girlfriend has sentence cut

Ailish Walsh was almost 23 weeks pregnant when she was killed

A man jailed for murder after he stabbed his pregnant girlfriend more than 40 times with scissors has had his sentence reduced by the Court of Appeal.

Liam Taylor killed Ailish Walsh, who was almost 23 weeks pregnant, at their flat in Hackney, east London, on 15 December 2022.

The 38-year-old was jailed for life with a minimum term of imprisonment of 27 years after he pleaded guilty to her murder at the Old Bailey in August 2023.

On Wednesday, appeal judges said the sentence should be reduced to a life sentence with a minimum term of imprisonment of 25 years.

Liam Taylor won his bid to take two years off his minimum jail term at the Court of Appeal

The sentence was reduced because there was no sexual element to the offending, Mrs Justice Justine Thornton said.

Andrew Morris, representing Taylor, said the sentencing judge incorrectly used words including "sadistic" and "sexual" to categorise Taylor's sentence but there was "no factual basis that his conduct was sexual in nature".

He accepted that Ms Walsh was stabbed in the genitals and abdomen but argued that Taylor had not intended to kill the female foetus.

Instead, he said the "frenzied attack was a loss of temper, on the spur of the moment".

Taylor has previous convictions for attacking female members of his family.

Jane Osborne KC, representing the Crown Prosecution Service, said Ms Walsh's wounds were "a clear attempt to inflict direct injury on the foetus he knew the deceased was carrying, and who he knew was his".

Mrs Justice Thornton, sitting with Lord Justice Tim Holroyde and Mr Justice Matthew Nicklin, said Taylor had "left Ms Walsh to die and made no attempt to contact the emergency services" afterwards.

Though she said the sentencing judge was "entitled to find many, very serious aggravating features" in the case, there was no sexual element to the offending, allowing a reduction in the sentence.