A father who brutally stabbed his love rival to d

A father who brutally stabbed his love rival to death after being
told that the woman they fought over was pregnant has been jailed for
six years.

Christopher Hodder, 28, was cleared of murder but convicted of
manslaughter by an Old Bailey jury for the clash which left Peter ‘PJ’
Smyth fatally injured.

Judge Brian Smedley QC told Hodder the jury’s verdict showed the
knife used in the killing had been brought by the dead man and not
him.

‘It was the behaviour of PJ that caused you to lose your self
control, behaviour that would have caused any man to lose his self
control in similar circumstances.

‘
The jury had heard how the killing was the final stage in the
stormy 10-year relationship between the defendant and Elaine Tansley,
25.

After being childhood sweethearts, the romance was over by the time
their second son was born in 1987 and she ‘suffered at his hands’, the
jury was told.

He moved out of their Plaistow home after Miss Tansley made an
allegation to the local police’s Domestic Violence Unit that he head-
butted her.

In 1990 she was rehoused in Boundary Road, Plaistow, and began a
new relationship with ‘shy, self-effacing and quiet’ PJ, which she
cautiously tried to keep secret from Hodder
But he found out through the innocent chatter of his children when
he visited.

The two men clashed outside her home on October 8 last year.

Mr John Bevan, prosecuting, claimed Hodder took the knife with him
and that PJ, anticipating trouble, took a roll of coins or a bunch of
keys to use as a knuckle duster if there was a punch-up.

PJ was then viciously and deliberately stabbed as Miss Tansley and
her son looked on helplessly, counsel said.

But in the witness box, Hodder claimed it had been PJ who had the
knife and had come at him with it.

He said he kicked it out of his hand and in the ensuing punch-up,
was knocked to the ground near the knife and picked it up.

Hodder told the jury he had the knife in his hand as he traded
blows with PJ and only later realised he had been stabbing him.

PJ, who had a conviction for carrying a knife in his native Eire,
died after one of the wounds penetrated his heart.

The jury partially rejected his story and convicted him of
manslaughter.

Judge Smedley was told Hodder, of Anne Street, Plaistow, had a
string of previous convictions but none for serious violence.

He told him: ‘Being before the courts is not an unusual course
given your background.

‘It is interesting that none of these convictions involved the use
of any violence.

‘It is clear to me at any rate that you did have possessive
feelings towards Miss Tansley after she left you and formed a new
relationship with PJ.

‘It is equally clear that your affection and your care for your
children was genuine.

I accept that you were a good father.

‘The jury have found you guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of
provocation.

‘It seems to me that it was the behaviour of PJ which caused you to
lose your self control, behaviour that would have caused any man to
lose self control in similar circumstances.

‘You reacted to that by stabbing him.

‘I bear in mind the physical separation a sentence of imprisonment
will produce between you and your children will be painful to you.

‘The fact remains that PJ is dead.

‘
Hodder did not react as he was jailed for six years, then turned
and waved to the public gallery before walking calmly down to the
cells.

ENDS