Shropshire Star

Telford murderer Paul Beddoes confessed killing to neighbour

A man jailed for life for killing his partner in a “ferocious” attack in a flat confessed what he had done to neighbours afterwards.

Published
Police outside the house where Paul Beddoes, inset, killed Lynn McNally

Lynn McNally, 46, died from multiple stab wounds in the early hours of February 20 after a row with Paul Beddoes at the first floor property, in Mullinder Drive, Ketley Bank, Telford.

Prosecuting barrister Bejamin Aina QC told the court that Beddoes and Miss McNally were often overheard arguing and a ground floor neighbour heard them shouting at about 5am and this stopped 15 minutes later.

He said another neighbour Anthony Avery explained that he was up when Beddoes had come to his home at about 5.45am to ask for a cigarette, but he had none and the defendant, who is blind in one eye, left.

Mr Aina said Mr Avery then described seeing Beddoes in the street a short time later as he drove his own girlfriend home.

The barrister said Mr Avery pulled over to ask Beddoes what he was doing out.

“The defendant replied with words to the effect, ‘I have killed Lynn’, Mr Aina said.

He said on his return Mr Avery shone a torch through the defendant’s glass door and saw Miss McNally lying in a pool of blood. There was a knife embedded in her side.

It was Mr Avery who telephoned the emergency services, but when they arrived Miss McNally was already dead.

The court was also shown police camera footage of the moment Beddoes was arrested in Mullinder Drive shortly after 6.30am as the murder inquiry got under way.

At first he gave them a false name, telling them his name was ‘Chris Brown’. However, he after a brief discussion he told them who he really was and a second knife was found in his pocket.

During his interviews at Malinsgate Police Station, in contrast to what he told his neighbour, Beddoes told detectives that he did not know how his partner of five years met her death.

But sentencing him to a minimum life term of 11 years and 175 days in prison, Judge Michael Chambers QC said he killed her in a “ ferocious” attack for a reason that remains unclear.

Mitigating barrister Mr Philip Bradley QC told Stafford Crown Court that Beddoes “acknowledged the incalculable loss that Miss McNally’s death has brought to her daughter and wider family”. Detective Inspector Mark Bellamy thanked the witnesses who helped secure the prosecution.

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