Martial arts partner killer jailed for minimum of 22 years

Nicole Hurley received stab injuries to her chest and neck

A martial arts enthusiast who killed his partner in front of children, held a friend captive and drove through a police cordon has been jailed for life.

Jason Bell, 42, murdered Nicole Hurley, 37, at their home in Primrose Hill, north-west London, in October 2021.

He then went to a friend's home with a large army-style knife, and accused him of sleeping with Ms Hurley.

Following this, he drove a van through a police tape before checking himself in to a mental health centre.

At the Old Bailey, Judge Alexia Durran sentenced Bell to a minimum term of 22 years for murder, false imprisonment and dangerous driving.

• Man charged with murder over Primrose Hill attack

• Jealous man guilty of murdering partner

Ms Hurley's father Tom said: "We've all lost a hugely important part of our family, and the thought that none of us will share our lives with Nicole ever again, and that she will miss so much of her children's lives, deeply saddens us every day.

"This won't ever make any sense and we will forever wish that things were different for all of us."

Jason Bell stashed a rucksack containing six phones and a bloody knife in a garden in Maida Vale

During the trial in August, prosecution barrister Michelle Nelson KC said the couple had been in a "difficult and volatile" relationship since Ms Hurley was in her teens.

Bell, who trained at a club in martial arts, would "explode" and punch and kick her. Ms Nelson said the fatal attack was witnessed by two young people in the house.

She went on: "It was an attack that appears to have come in three or four parts and one in which Nicole Hurley sustained multiple stab wounds, the result of the use of more than one knife."

Bell had stashed a rucksack containing six phones and a bloody knife in a garden in Victoria Mews, Maida Vale, near the home of his longstanding friend Jeremy Drewitt.

Bell then turned up at Mr Drewitt's home wearing a bloodstained dressing gown. He demanded Mr Drewitt hand over the keys to his van and drove through police cordon tape.

A police officer saw Bell approaching and shouted at him to stop, but the vehicle kept going and she was forced to move behind a police car.

Rather than handing himself in, Bell walked into a mental health assessment centre in St Pancras and asked to be sectioned. Armed police arrested him there.

While in custody, Bell claimed Ms Hurley had told him she was having a baby and that he was not the father - although jurors were told she was not pregnant at the time of her death.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail]