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25/07/92
- Evil schemer kept knives on bed wall
The Sun
By James Lewthwaite and Mike Sullivan
MURDERING mistress Michelle Taylor was a martial arts expert who
kept a collection of fiendish knives on the wall above her bed.
She called the weapons her "tools of the trade" —
and detectives believe she used her knowledge of Japanese fighting
techniques when she stabbed her lover's wife Alison Shaughnessy.
Michelle, 21, emerged yesterday as an obsessive and aggressive
woman who hid her scheming nature beneath a friendly and innocent
exterior. Former boyfriend Tim Lancaster said: "Her big thing
was jiu-jitsu. She always went on about it and had big knives
on the wall.
"She always said they were the tools of the trade for the
art which she followed. But I must say it seemed a bit weird to
me." Michelle and her 19-year-old sister Lisa both attended
jiu-jitsu classes at a community centre in Bromley, Kent.
They were trained to deliver punches capable of killing and to
fight with weapons. Michelle became a blue belt. But she was kicked
out of the club after falling for instructor Colin Elgie.
A detective said: "The instructor told his wife about it.
One day she was out shopping and noticed she was being stared
at by Michelle. Colin then decided it was best if Michelle left
the club.''
The crush on Colin was a hint of the evil passion that later drove
Michelle to murder the wife of her lover John Shaughnessy. The
detective said: "Michelle is an obsessive woman who made
Fatal Attraction seem like a teddy bears picnic."
Michelle started seeing her ex-boyfriend Tim in January last year
during a brief lull in her affair with Shaughnessy. Tim, an operating
theatre assistant, called off the relationship because of Michelle's
fixation with John.
He said: "They were supposed to have finished with each other
but I got the impression that they hadn't. "Michelle seemed
to spend an unhealthy amount of time with John. She also said
John didn't like me seeing her."
Tim, now working in Saudi Arabia, said he "wasn't surprised"
when he learned who had killed Shaughnessy's wife. Michelle, from
Forest Hill, South London, was a schemer who gave neighbours and
workmates the impression of a sweet girl who wouldn't hurt a fly.
No one suspected the hideous plot she hatched with Lisa to butcher
bank clerk Alison.
The sisters even continued their charade after the murder. They
sprinkled holy water over Alison's coffin in church and took holy
communion with her family. Michelle sobbed throughout the service.
She hugged Alison's relatives afterwards and told them: "It's
such a terrible shame," Alison's brother Robert Blackmore
said last night: "I cannot believe they had the nerve to
do it. "Michelle was crying her eyes out and everybody was
looking at her. "They had the cheek to queue up to sprinkle
holy water over my sister's coffin at the altar.
"Afterwards Michelle came up to us and started sympathising.
Her sister was with her. "I just wish I could strangle both
of the girls. They are evil." Michelle's sympathy act came
at St Peter's Church, Hornsey, North London, two days before Alison
was buried in Ireland.
The warped sisters earlier attended a memorial mass for Alison
at St George's Cathedral, Southwark. Alison's father Bob, 50,
said: "I don't know how anyone could kill anybody so beautiful.
"I'll never accept that it was a crime of passion. It was
a cold and calculated murder." |
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