A prison officer who quaffed Champagne after stabb

A prison officer who quaffed Champagne after stabbing his lover more than 70 times in a murderous fit of jealousy began a life sentence at the Old Bailey today.

(FRI)

Burly Mark Crookshank, 36, slid into alcoholism and suicidal despair after Jill Hardy, 34, left him for her ex-boyfriend John Bridger.

Crookshank made a number of attempts to rekindle their relationship but she made it clear she and Mr Bridger were an item again.

Miss Hardy had just spent a weekend with Mr Bridger in Cardiff and it was clear that they slept in the same bed together.

When she goaded him by saying the other man was better in bed he slaughtered single mum Miss Hardy with a knife and a screwdriver.

He inflicted the most frenzied of attacks, stabbing her more than 20 times to the head with the screwdriver.

One six centimetre injury smashed through the victim’s cheek and into her sinuses.

Several blows created holes in her skull.

She also suffered many knife wounds in the chest and back.

The most serious was an eight centimetre deep gash between the ribs which punctured her lung.

He then guzzled Champagne next to her butchered corpse before dialling 999.

He told police: ‘I have beaten the s**t out of her and I have stabbed her with a screwdriver and a knife.

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Today (FRI) Crookshank showed no emotion as the jury of six men and six women convicted him of murder.

But several of the women jurors sobbed as the foreman announced the unanimous verdict after just over four hours of deliberation.

He admitted killing his ex-fiancee on April 16, 2000, but denied murder claiming he ‘lost it completely’ under extreme provocation.

Judge Martin Stephens, QC, told him simply: ‘There is only one sentence that I can pass and that is one of life imprisonment.

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Members of Miss Hardy’s family broke down in tears in the well of the court as he was led away.

The court had heard that once married Crookshank has a history of clinical depression and has attempted suicide three times.

Graham Trembath, defending, Crookshank, said he was ‘not a man who could approach this logically when she told him she was sleeping with Mr Bridger.

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Crookshank lived at lodgings in ‘Cat C’ Coldingley Prison where he was respected by both colleagues and hardened inmates including lifers.

The court was told that he could not accept it when Miss Hardy ended their stormy relationship and returned to Mr Bridger.

She had previously finished with Mr Bridger after he slept with another woman.

‘It is plain Crookshank took that rejection badly.

He failed to report for work at Coldingley Prison and resorted to alcohol.

‘His fellow officers described him as distraught, crying, threatening to commit suicide.

‘On that day he asked a fellow prison officer to drive him to Jill Hardy’s house.

‘On the way the defendant asked for advice: ‘What should you do when your girlfriend sleeps with another man?’

‘His colleague said he would leave her.

As the defendant got out of the car he said to him: “Don’t do anything stupid, Mark, don’t hit her.

Sit down and talk.

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Neighbours saw the couple arguing outside the house at (106) James Road, Frimley, Surrey, on the day of the attack.

A taxi was called for Crookshank by Miss Hardy but the driver got no answer from the house when he arrived five minutes later at 4.

50pm.

Fifteen minutes later police received the chilling 999 call from her killer.

Crookshank had moved in to her home in Frimley in March 2000 after the couple became engaged.

‘The arrangement did not last beyond three weeks as they encountered financial difficulties and by April 7 Jill wanted him out.

‘He assaulted her and was arrested for that and the relationship was clearly in trouble.

‘Miss Hardy was at times indecisive and there seem to have been occasions when she found it difficult to choose between the two men.

‘But she eventually rejected the defendant and had decided to settle with John Bridger.

They had started to see each other and by April 14 they were back together.

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Giving evidence Crookshank told the court of his despair at losing the woman he became ‘obsessed’ with: ‘I felt like everything had been confirmed, that all through the relationship she had been seeing him.

I felt gutted.

‘I didn’t intend to hurt her, kill her or anything.

I felt like I was there but I wasn’t there – like a zombie.

‘I would sell my soul to the devil to bring her back.

I destroyed two families.

If God forgives me I don’t think I could forgive myself.

‘I was in the sitting room asking for her back, begging her.

She said to me that she was back with John Bridger, they were an item.

‘I asked whether she had slept with him.

She said ”Yes” and that he was better than me.

‘I know I had the knives.

I think she was standing up with her face to the window.

I asked her whether there was any chance of us getting back together.

‘I lifted my arm up and there was a knife in my hand.

Next thing I remember she was on the floor.

I don’t know what order I did these things.

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Miss Hardy had lived in Frimley for two and a half years and had an 11 year-old son, Danny.

He was staying with her parents on the day of her death.

She had broken up with Mr Bridger after discovering he was sleeping with another woman and met Crookshank in March 1999.

Anthony Bradbury, the senior prison officer at Coldingley, had said the defendant was ‘on edge’ in the days leading up to the killing.

‘He was more or less obsessed with her,’ said Mr Bradbury.

Close colleague Marie Browes told the court he ‘went to pieces’ before the murder and kept saying: ‘I want to die.

I want to kill myself.

I cannot bear to think of her with him.

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ends