Former Duchess of York aide Jane Andrews has been

Former Duchess of York aide Jane Andrews has been convicted of murdering her millionaire boyfriend when he refused to marry her.

Andrews, 34, clubbed Tom Cressman, 39, with a cricket then plunged a kitchen knife into his chest after he dashed her hopes of a society wedding and the children she longed for.

Planning to flee the country and blame a blackmailer for the murder, Andrews, who was Sarah Ferguson’s dresser for nine years, fled the Fulham home in the middle of the night.

Police found her in Cornwall three days later after she sent e-mails to friends protesting her innocence and took 40 headache pills in an apparent suicide bid.

The Old Bailey jury convicted Andrews on a majority decision after 11 hours and 44 mintutes deliberation.

The family of the victim let out muted cheers as the decision was announced.

Prosecutor Bruce Houlder, QC, told the court the killing was a ‘classic case of the jilted woman wanting revenge.

‘Anger and jealousy rose up in her and led her to take a terrible revenge on the man she clearly loved.

‘She was a friendly and decent woman who was so transformed and frankly burnt up inside by her anger that she killed.

‘This is a woman who has showed a capacity for thought, cunning action, deliberation and revenge.

‘

The couple had endured a stormy relationship since meeting in 1998.

The affair hit the rocks in September 1999 when Andrews began pestering Mr Cressman for a commitment to marry.

She was also rabidly jealous of his past girlfriends and his playboy lifestyle.

In May 2000 she discovered e-mails he had sent to a woman called Deborah in Las Vegas while he was on a stag-weekend in America.

Andrews demanded he return home immediately but he managed to assure her the sex messages were just fantasies he wanted published in erotic magazines.

But she gave him an ultimatum of six months to propose to her.

Mr Cressman later confided in a close friend that Andrews was ‘a pair of old slippers I cannot throw away.

‘

An idyllic holiday in Italy and the South of France
ended with a blazing row at the airport with Andrews refusing to board the plane.

She tearfully called friends telling them ‘Tommy’ had told her he was not going to marry her.

They returned home to [66] Maltings House in Bagley’s Lane, Fulham and Andrews was to claim her lover agreed to go with him to psychotherapist to sort out their problems.

Another furious argument erupted the following day and Mr Cressman called the police at 11.

35am telling the operator: ‘Somebody is going to get hurt’

Police advised him to keep calm and no officers were sent to the scene.

As her boyfriend slept that night, Andrews stripped naked to avoid blood staining her clothes and stood before his bed clutching his the knife and a cricket bat.

She smashed him across the head with the bat then stabbed the unconscious and helpless lover in the chest.

Andrews was to claim Mr Cressman had anally raped her – but she did not try to leave the house or call the police.

Instead she threatened to tear up the holiday pictures and ‘ruin’ his business by mailing the Las Vegas e-mails to business colleagues and his parents.

Andrews claimed she left the bedroom twice because of his physical attacks and a repeated rape attempt.

Each time she returned, first with a cricket bat and then a knife to defend herself.

It was her defence she had stabbed him accidentally in an attempt to protect herself.

She told the jury: ‘He started hitting me and said I had ruined him.

He said he was going to f****** kill me.

‘I just froze.

He got hold of my hair and was trying to hit me.

I picked up the knife because I didn’t want him anywhere near me.

‘We came together and the next thing I knew he was on top of me.

It must have gone into him.

I crawled from underneath him and ran out of the room.

‘

Her barrister John Kelsey-Fry QC claimed she was not guilty of murder due to provocation, diminished responsibility because of her mental illness and self-defence.

But the jury found Andrews had in fact carefully planned the murder of Mr Cressman.

Andrews fled the room covered in blood and drove towards Plymouth after scrubbing the blood from her skin.

The first person she contacted was ex-husband Christopher Dunn-Butler at 3.

10am on Sunday, September 17, just a few minutes after the fatal stabbing.

She then sent messages to friends denying all knowledge of her lover’s death and claiming he had been blackmailed.

The body was found a day later and police immediately began searching for their prime suspect.

She finally revealed her location at a layby on the A38 near Liskeard, Cornwall, to her friend Lucinda Sharp after three days in hiding.

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