'Devil incarnate' gets life term for killing mum in front of children
Stalker used cattle gun in execution
Saturday November 14 2009
THE family of a young Irish mother "executed" in front of her daughters by an obsessed stalker with a bolt gun normally used to kill cattle have described her murderer as "the devil incarnate".
John McFarlane was yesterday jailed for life for the murder of Dublin-born fitness instructor Mary Griffiths (38), who was asleep in bed in her English home when he smashed his way in with an axe.
"He is in our eyes the devil incarnate," Ms Griffiths' sister, Louise Scannell, said outside the Old Bailey in London.
Dozens of Ms Griffiths' friends and family, who had flown over from their northside Dublin home, thronged the courtroom for the sentencing.
Her parents Joe and Kitty Ryan are from Glasnevin, while the mother-of-three, known to her friends as Emmy, also has two sisters and six brothers.
The Old Bailey heard how McFarlane had turned off the power at the fuse box in a cupboard at her home in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, before rushing up to her second-floor bedroom and attacking the divorced mother-of-three.
Fight
McFarlane (40) dragged her downstairs while her daughters Jessica (13) and Hannah (10) tried to fight him off.
He continued his attack in the street, where he pinned her to the ground and shot her twice more in the chest with the bolt gun used to slaughter livestock just before 3am on May 6 last.
A neighbour described the shooting in a police statement as being "clinical, deliberate, like an execution".
McFarlane then pistol-whipped Jessica with the weapon he used at work to stun cattle.
He later sent texts to friends, saying he had taught Dublin-born Ms Griffiths a lesson for "ripping out his heart and stamping on it". She was later declared dead at West Suffolk Hospital. Police later found him bleeding heavily after he attempted to kill himself by slitting his wrists in the garden of the house he was staying in.
Mr Justice Bean yesterday recommended McFarlane serve a minimum 20 years before being considered for parole. He described her murder as "a tragic and devastating loss" for three generations of her family.
Mary's heartbroken sister, Ms Scannell, said: "The pain he inflicted on Mary that night and the terror she and her children experienced is what nightmares are made of. We will forever be haunted by thoughts of how much Mary suffered in the last hours of her life."
The court heard how Ms Griffiths' youngest daughter, Sophie (9), expressed feelings of remorse that she had been unable to "fight off the bad man".
Ms Griffiths met McFarlane though their shared love of martial arts, and both were fitness instructors.
Prosecutor Stephen Harvey said Ms Griffiths, who got divorced from her husband in 2007, regarded McFarlane as a platonic friend. But McFarlane had posted a message on Facebook, falsely claiming that he had been having an affair with Ms Griffiths.
She left a message in reply, saying: "You are delusional if you think I would touch you with a bargepole. Stop stalking me or I will call the police."
The court heard that Ms Griffiths called police on the afternoon of May 5 seeking advice because she felt she was being harassed. Officers agreed to visit that night but the visit was the rearranged for the next day.
Jonathan Goodman, defending, said McFarlane had been suffering from a severe depressive illness and had no recollection of the attack, but accepted full responsibility for it.
- Louise Hogan and Andrew Young
Irish Independent
