Skydiving Instructor Sentenced to Life After Murdering His Girlfriend | UK News
A man who strangled his mother of three in her home has been sentenced to at least 19 years in prison.
Ashley Kemp, who showed “nothing but self-pity from beginning to end” during the trial, was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of murdering Clair Armstrong.
Kemp, 55, called 999 on November 6 last year and said: “I killed my girlfriend. We got into a fight and I ended up strangling her.’
He fled the scene and crashed his car into a tree near Clair’s home in the village of Messingham, Lincolnshire, where he was found and arrested.
Clair, 50, was a skydiving instructor and owned a beauty salon. Her relationship with Kemp ended after a teenager made sexual allegations against him, the court heard.
Judge John Thackray KC sentenced him at Hull Crown Court, saying Kemp ruled “if you couldn’t have her, nobody could” and that the circumstances surrounding the attack were “devastating, tragic and brutal”.
Judge Thackray added: “On the day in question she had informed you that the relationship was finally over and that you would have to move out.
“I have no hesitation in concluding that I’m sure you meant to kill.
“I don’t accept that you are truly remorseful. I found nothing but self-pity in your testimony from beginning to end.’
The judge added that no verdict he passed could bring Clair back to her three sons, describing her as a “completely innocent victim.”
Kemp, of Robinson Grove, Hibaldstow, showed no emotion as he sat on the glass-fronted dock in a gray suit, white shirt and purple tie.
He listened as Ms Armstrong’s brother-in-law, Ian Farrell, read an impact statement on behalf of their “siblings and sons”.
Mr Farrell said Kemp did not have the “decency to fully admit what he did”, adding: “Unfortunately he did not have the courage to do so and as a result we have looked through extremely horrific reports and details of how Clair was taken out of our lives.’
He said this would “haunt us forever”.
Mr Farrell said Ms Armstrong’s death “shook us all and left a huge hole in our lives that can never be filled”.
He said: “Clair, our beautiful sister and mother, was tragically taken from us in such horrific circumstances that we will never accept or understand it.”
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