A company director who moved into a luxury flat to start a new life was killed by her sex-obsessed neighbour.
Christine James, 65, had her throat cut by Kris Wade, whose home was found to contain bondage gear including handcuffs, a straitjacket and a ball gag.
The grandmother’s body was found after she failed to turn up for a family holiday and her son raised the alarm.
Mrs James, the mother-in-law of former Wales rugby captain Jonathan Humphreys, had recently separated from her husband Stuart after more than 30 years, and moved into a fourth-floor waterside flat in Cardiff Bay. Wade, 37, lived in the apartment above, and a court heard he exploded with rage after he turned up at her door and she rejected his advances.
Prosecutor Paul Lewis QC said: ‘It was a brutal attack in which a knife was used to inflict the injuries. He has never offered an account or explanation of why.
‘Police found bondage items, including a straitjacket, black rope, handcuffs, ball gag, mask and incontinence pads in his bedroom. He had a clear interest in sadomasochistic sex. The incident was sexually motivated although there is no evidence of a sexual assault. An item that could be a gag was found with her body.’
When police searched Wade’s flat they also found a large black suitcase which had Mrs James’s blood on it. Inside was a broken bracelet and blood-stained black handcuffs. Wade admitted murder at Cardiff Crown Court and was yesterday jailed for life, to serve a minimum of 21 years.
Mrs James’s son Jason, a pilot, described her killing as ‘brutal and senseless’. She had moved out of the £950,000 five-bed home she shared with her husband just months earlier. He told the court: ‘Mum, in the weeks before her death, was in good spirits enjoying her new-found freedom.
‘She became happier and was visiting and making more friends than ever. She was looking forward to what life held for her.’
The court heard the ‘barbaric’ attack may have taken place over several hours or even days. ‘I pray every day that my mother was unconscious when he dealt that fatal blow with a knife and never saw it coming,’ Mrs James’s son added. ‘To say our family feel pain on an hourly basis is an understatement.
‘There’s no sentence which will bring my mother back, and no sentence which will reflect the pain he inflicted on my mother and our family.’
Mrs James’s other child Vicki, 41, is married to rugby star Humphreys, 47, and the couple now live in Scotland.
The property firm director was found dead on March 2 this year after she failed to arrive at Gatwick to catch a flight to Florida.
The court heard officers initially arrested her estranged husband, about whom she had previously lodged a complaint with police.
But loner Wade was arrested after other neighbours reported his strange behaviour, with one saying they heard him sobbing in the apartment block’s basement.
Daily Mail