Shrewsbury love triangle killing: How jealousy and rage resulted in manslaughter
It was a split-second decision to take the knife in his hand and plunge it into the heart of his love rival. Yet the consequences have destroyed the lives of two Shrewsbury men - one of whom is dead and the other now a convicted killer.
Kai Sainz-Stafford has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Sam Siviter, 35, after the young dad confronted him over a trip to his ex’s for late night “fun”.
Sainz-Stafford, 24, will spend a number of his prime years locked behind bars, pondering why he did what he did as the days, weeks and months slowly tick by.
But that is nothing compared to Mr Siviter, who was struck down just weeks after landing his “dream job” as he was “trying to sort himself out” to be there for his family.
His children will grow up without a father due to a furious few minutes of madness.
The case has been subject of a murder trial at Stafford Crown Court, which was brought to an abrupt end yesterday (Monday, November 10) after the prosecution accepted a guilty plea from Sainz-Stafford to a lesser charge of manslaughter.
It was on the night of Thursday, May 1 this year when the fateful confrontation took place.
A volatile relationship between Mr Siviter and his ex, Hannah Cottrell, provided the fiery backdrop to what was to come.
The pair got together in 2021 and later had a child together. Ms Cottrell has a son from a previous relationship, and Stafford Crown Court was told that the youngster saw Mr Siviter like a dad.
However, not all was rosy in their garden.
The court was told that Mr Siviter and Ms Cottrell “liked to wind each other up”, and the cause of many of their arguments would be when one thought the other was seeing somebody else.
One such incident in July last year resulted in Mr Siviter being told by social services to live away from the family home in Lambourn Drive, Bicton Heath, after he had been fighting in the street.
And indeed, just weeks before the night of Mr Siviter’s death, he was at the home of a friend of Ms Cottrell’s late at night, trying to kick the door in, launching chairs into the windows and yelling obscenities with children upstairs, all because he thought she was in there with another man.
Meanwhile, Sainz-Stafford, of Field Crescent, Sundorne, Shrewsbury, first began texting Ms Cottrell around a fortnight before May 1.
They exchanged “flirty” messages, in which they agreed to go on a date.
He told her: “Gonna make you my wife, I am.” She told him she was “hard to get”, to which he replied: “Not once you’ve met me.” They agreed to go on a date, although it never happened.
At the time, Mr Siviter was living with his friend Adam Malvone in Finden Way - in a property where the garden backs onto Ms Cottrell’s home.
His mother, Glynis Taylor, said it was “not a good idea” for her son to live there, given his “bad temper” and propensity to “flip” if he thought Ms Cottrell was seeing someone else.
It may be considered a cruel irony that Mr Siviter was due to move out of the property and into shared accommodation in Kendal Road, Harlescott, on the day he died, to put some distance between himself and Ms Cottrell.
Mrs Taylor was on good terms with Ms Cottrell and would often be at her house to help with childcare.
Her son and Ms Cottrell had both been users of cocaine. Mrs Taylor mentioned the importance of “safeguarding” the children.
