BLOODSTAINED CHRISTOPHER GRIMWOOD GAVE HIMSELF UP
BLOODSTAINED CHRISTOPHER GRIMWOOD GAVE HIMSELF UP TO POLICE
AFTER A FRENZIED KNIFE ATTACK ON HIS CHILDHOOD SWEETHEART, AN OLD JURY
HEARD ON TUESDAY.
ADMITTING HE HAD KILLED 19-YEAR OLD LUCY FOREST, GRIMWOOD, 20,
A MINISTRY OF DEFENCE WORKER, SAID: ‘I JUST WENT MAD’.
GRIMWOOD HAD PLANNED TO KILL HIMSELF AFTER TAKING THE LIFE OF
THE WOMAN HE LOVED.
INSIDE HIS JACKET POCKET WAS A SUICIDE NOTE.
‘USE ME FOR
TRANSPLANTS’, HE HAD WRITTEN.
DETECTIVES FOUND LUCY’S BODY IN THE HALLWAY OUTSIDE HER FLAT
IN BENBOW HOUSE, BENBOW STREET, DEPTFORD.
A 10 INCH SECUTEUR CARVING
KNIFE WAS STILL EMBEDED IN HER CHEST.
THE JURY WERE TOLD THE COUPLE HAD BEEN IN LOVE FOR MANY YEARS.
THEY FIRST MET WHEN LUCY WAS A 14-YEAR-OLD SCHOOL GIRL.
‘EVEN AT SCHOOL THEY WANTED TO LIVE TOGETHER BUT WAITED UNTIL
SHE WAS 18’, SAID MR COLLIN MICHELL, PROSECUTING.
THEN, WITH THEIR PARENTS CONSENT, THEY LIVED TOGETHER AT HIS
FLAT IN THAMES STREET, GREENWICH.
BUT AFTER ONLY EIGHT MONTHS THE COUPLE PARTED AND LUCY MOVED
INTO HER OWN FLAT.
‘THEY REMAINDED FRIENDS’, SAID COUNSEL.
AND THEY EVEN SPENT A
WEEKEND TOGETHER IN SUFFOK A SHORT TIME BEFORE THE ATTACK.
ON NOVEMBER 16, LAST YEAR LUCY’S MOTHER VISITED HER DAUGHTER
AND REMEMBERED HER AS BEING ‘HAPPY’, SAID COUNSEL.
BUT ONLY A FEW
HOURS LATER SHE WAS DEAD.
MR MITCHELL TOLD THE JURY GRIMWOOD VISITED THE FLAT THAT
EVENING.
AND ‘VICIOUSLY’ STABBED HER MORE THAN EIGHT TIMES IN THE
NECK AND CHEST AFTER A VIOLENT STRUGGLE.
SOME OF THE KNIFE WOUNDS ‘TRANSFIXED’ HER BODY.
‘THEY WENT IN
ONE SIDE AND OUT THE OTHER’, SAID MR MITCHELL.
FURNITURE HAD BEEN OVERTURNED AND NEIGHBOURS HEARD LUCY
SCREAMING AND SHOUTING ‘LEAVE ME ALONE – GO AWAY.
‘
GRIMWOOD, A SCIENTIFIC OFFICER FOR THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE,
DENIES MURDER.
‘THERE IS NO DISPUTE THAT HE KILLED THIS YOUNG WOMAN’, SAID MR
MITCHELL.
HIS DEFENCE IS THAT AT THE TIME HE BLACKED OUT AND WAS
SUFFERING FROM A ‘FAILURE OF THE MIND’ SO THAT HIS RESPONSIBILITY WAS
DIMINISHED.
THE TRIAL CONTINUES.
ENDS.
