According to Karl Taylor, a 27 year-old football coach from Covent Garden, London, Kate Beagley committed suicide by stabbing herself … in the face and neck … more than 30 times. She did this, Taylor insists, while he watched, stunned, as they sat on a park bench overlooking the River Thames. Once he realized she was dead he lay on the grass, crying profusely. Then he carried her body to her car, drove to Oxhey Wood, Hertfordshire, stripped her naked, and dumped her in a patch of nettles.
He admits he planned on stealing Beagley’s car, but he insists he didn’t kill her.
Inconceivably the jury in the Old Bailey found Taylor’s story difficult to believe. After just two hours of deliberations they found him guilty of murder. He’ll spend the next 30 years behind bars.