Family of Colston Bassett woman Clair Ablewhite describe terrible loss as 'evil' killer John Jessop is jailed for life for her murder

A father implored a judge to make life mean life when sentencing the man who brutally killed his daughter when he did not get the answers he wanted over why their short relationship had ended.

In a victim impact statement, Graham Tinkley described to Nottingham Crown Court today (Wednesday) how he had gone to Clair Ablewhite's remote cottage after one of her son's had rung him expressing his concern she had not been to tend her horses on a February morning last year.

He let himself into the property in Colston Bassett, finding a pool of blood and then his daughter.

Clair, a mother of three sons who were all in court alongside their grandfather to see her killer jailed for murder, addressed the judge and said: "She was old enough to be his mum.

"Why, why, why John Jessop? I still can't understand why you brutally murdered her in this way. I want this man locked up for the rest of his life.

"I ask for whole life for this man. That is all I can ask for today."

He said the cottage, where she had lived for just six weeks, was supposed to be a new start following the breakdown of her marriage, but John Jessop, who lived in a house of multiple occupancy, Regal Lodge, on Sherwood Avenue, Newark, had "ended this".

"Not in a million years did I ever expect any harm to come to Clair," he said.

Jessop, 26, had been in a brief relationship with Clair, 47, who, the court heard, had issues over the age difference, but Jessop could not accept that as the reason.

Judge Stuart Rafferty KC disagreed with the prosecution the murder had been premeditated and said Jessop had gone to Colston Bassett uninvited and unannounced seeking answers to the questions that he had and, when he didn't get them, had bludgeoned Clair.

Finally, said the judge, showing her that things were going to be on his terms, or no terms at all, he slit her throat to exert the only control that he had left.

Describing the attack as sustained and brutal, he jailed Jessop for 17 years eight months, telling the family the guidelines would not allow life to mean life in this instance, and that no sentence would ever be enough to compensate for their loss.

On the fateful night, Jessop cycled 17 miles from Newark along country roads to her home, leaving his phone at home, the prosecution said, to make it appear when tracked that he had never left.

He spent an hour at the address after slitting Clair's throat before leaving and locking the door behind him, taking the keys, the murder weapon and her phone with him, which he discarded in a stream as he cycled home.

Her screams were captured on a neighbour's audio CCTV and she was found the next morning by her father.

Each of her sons also read victim impact statements.

Ross described an ongoing living nightmare and that carrying his mum's casket at her funeral at aged just 16 would stay with him for life.

Sam said that all three boys had been close to their mum. He described helping her move into the cottage and said of Jessop that he was someone she had met but decided was not for her.

He said his mother would never see him marry or the children he had.

He said his mother was taken prematurely and told Jessop: "I will never forgive you for this."

Daniel asked why someone would want to take the best mum from him, and described her as having a heart of gold.

He said his mum had always wanted to be a grandmother and that Jessop was an evil killer.

"The scars left on me will never be removed. The tears I shed never dry," he said."

"All I can think is why, why, why?"

In mitigation, Jessop's barrister Peter Joyce KC described his client as lonely rather than a loner and said he and Clair had found solace in each other.

He said Jessop had spared the family from having to go through a trial by pleading guilty and that he was remorseful.

Jessop himself has yet to give any account of what happened that night.