Kerry Woolley murder: Killer jailed alongside accomplice mum

A man who stabbed, smothered and strangled his girlfriend has been jailed alongside his mother, who helped him try to cover up his crime.

A jury found Ian Bennett, 38, guilty of murdering Kerry Woolley in July 2020.

His mother Lynda Bennett, 63, was convicted of assisting an offender and perverting the course of justice after she helped him hide the murder weapon.

He was ordered to serve at least 25 years in prison, while his mum was sentenced to three.

They were convicted after a 16-day trial and Birmingham Crown Court heard it was Ms Bennett's own dashcam footage that proved the pair's undoing.

The body of mother-of-two Ms Woolley was found on 12 July 2020 in the bedroom of her flat off Warwick Road, Solihull.

Jurors were told Bennett was "jealous and possessive" and had researched the "best way to get revenge on a woman" before the attack.

The court was told the 38-year-old "sustained 54 sharp-force injuries", mainly to her neck, and there were also signs she had been smothered and strangled.

Ms Woolley's body was found the day after Bennett went to stay at her home.

Kerry Woolley's family said she was a "beautiful, bubbly lady who had a heart of gold"

After killing her, the prosecution said, he attempted to "cover up" what he had done with the help of his mother.

CCTV footage later showed her car being driven to a canal bridge where Bennett was seen throwing an item away.

His mother later drove him to a staged visit to "discover" the body of Ms Woolley.

However, the killer was caught on his mother's dashcam footage dumping the evidence, and a knife which was forensically connected to Ms Woolley was later recovered from the spot.

West Midlands Police said later that afternoon the 38-year-old called 999, telling police officers he had found the mother-of-two with catastrophic wounds to her neck at her flat.

Officers analysed text messages between the couple, who had only met a few weeks before, and they suggested that there had been a falling out a couple of days earlier.

Bennett appeared to be angry, accusing Ms Woolley of cheating on him, although police said this was groundless.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Ms Woolley's family described her as a "beautiful, bubbly lady who had a heart of gold", adding it was "unbearable to think that she will not get to see her children grow up".

Kerry Woolley received more than 50 stab wounds, mainly to her neck

In passing sentence, Judge Melbourne Inman QC said neither of the Bennetts, had shown any remorse for the "savage" murder and added: "It was mere good fortune that your car had CCTV which revealed what you had done."

He described their efforts to conceal the crime as "calm and calculated" and said: "You are an extremely dangerous man. An experienced pathologist said in his evidence that it was one of the most horrific murders he had seen.

"In the absence of any explanation whatsoever from you, I am quite sure that there was a degree of premeditation in your decision to kill her that night."

Det Sgt Rory Juss said: "Ian Bennett unleashed a vicious and brutal attack on Kerry Woolley, a woman he had only been in a relationship with for a matter of a few short weeks.

"He then chose to blatantly lie about what had happened but quickly became unstuck as the evidence mounted up against him."