Mark Morris jailed for killing Emma Day over child support payments

Mark Morris was "controlling, verbally abusive and liable to lose his temper", the court heard

A man has been jailed for life for killing the mother of his child after they argued about childcare payments.

Mark Morris, 39, admitted stabbing 33-year-old hospital worker Emma Day with a kitchen knife as she walked home from school in south London on 25 May.

Their six-year-old daughter said the attack had left her "heart empty" in a statement read out by Ms Day's family .

Morris, from Croydon, was convicted of murder at the Old Bailey on Friday.

He was told he would spend at last 21 years in jail.

The pair had been in an eight-year relationship which ended in 2016, the court heard. Morris had repeatedly threatened to kill Ms Day if she did not cancel a £2,000-a-year child maintenance claim.

In a text message Morris had told Ms Day: "I'll go to prison before you get a penny from me."

Morris had claimed that he was over £6,000 in debt, and paying for child maintenance would force him to become homeless.

Mark Morris attacked Emma Day after they argued about childcare payments

Morris had waited for Ms Day with a knife outside the gates of his child's school in West Norwood.

Before the killing, he had researched ways online to kill himself, said goodbye to his work colleagues and told his daughter she would not see him again.

He sent Ms Day a text message on the morning of the murder referring to a "grand finale".

Morris appeared looking "drunk and dirty" as Ms Day walked over with her friend and the children.

During an argument between Morris and Ms Day he told his daughter, "I'm really sorry", before the children were sent away, the court heard.

Morris then stabbed Ms Day multiple times, slashing her neck and puncturing her heart and lung.

In sentencing Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC said the child now "associates everything with death and dying".

"That of course is because of the actions of her own father," he added.