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- Lover 'killed wife then gave husband lift home'
A MAN found his wife's body after being given a lift home by his
lover, who had murdered her just hours before, an Old Bailey court
was told yesterday. John Nutting, for the prosecution, said that
Michelle Taylor was infatuated with John Shaughnessy, aged 28.
Their affair had begun before his marriage but he told her he
would never leave his wife Alison, so she plotted with her sister
Lisa, to kill Mrs Shaughnessy. They waited for the 20-year-old
bank clerk, outside her flat in Vardens Road, Battersea, south
west London, on 3 June last year.
Mr Nutting said: "They gained access to the flat on some
pretext and there, on the top of a flight of stairs, Alison was
stabbed to death." A post mortem examination showed that
Mrs Shaughnessy had been stabbed 54 times.
Ms Taylor, 21, and her 18-year-old sister Lisa, of Kemble Road,
Forest Hill, south-east London, have both denied murder. Mr Nutting
said Mr Shaughnessy worked at the Churchill Clinic in Lambeth,
south London, with Ms Taylor.
He said: "Some time before he became engaged to be married
to Alison he and Michelle began to have an affair. That affair
continued after his marriage. Michelle became completely infatuated
by him ... She knew he would never leave Alison.
He told her so." Mr Nutting said that after Mrs Shaughnessy
was murdered, the sisters returned to the clinic and Ms Taylor
gave Mr Shaughnessey a lift home. Mr Nutting said: "He discovered
the body of his wife lying where Michelle and her sister had left
her body when they murdered her a few hours earlier."
After Mr and Mrs Shaughnessy were married in 1990, Ms Taylor maintained
a pleasant front with Mrs Shaughnessy, cultivating her company
and accompanying the couple to pubs, to preserve her relationship
with her lover.
Mr Nutting said Mrs Shaughnessy "became somewhat vexed about
her husband's relationship with Ms Taylor but, unworldly and immature,
she did not suspect the true nature of their relationship or the
true feeling Michelle harboured for Shaughnessy.
She trusted the man she was to marry". He added: "But
the reality of Michelle's feelings for Alison were very different."
Michelle's true feelings of "suppressed jealousy and hatred
for her rival" were disclosed in her diary.
One entry read: "I love him being with me and for a long
time all I have wanted was for him to sleep the night so I had
him to hold." In another entry Ms Taylor complained that
Mr Shaughnessy always rushed off after they made love.
In October 1990, Ms Taylor writer "I hate Alison, the unwashed
bitch. My dream solution would be for Alison to disappear as if
she never existed and then maybe I could give everything I wanted
to the man I love."
After discovering Mrs Shaughnessy's body with Mr Shaughnessy,
Mr Nutting said Ms Taylor "affected horror and shock".
She went into a pub shouting hysterically: "Please phone
the police; my friend has been killed."
The trial was adjourned until today. |
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