Man Sentenced For Murdering Bedford Mum

17 May 2012, 16:34 | Updated: 18 May 2012, 07:53

A man who stabbed his partner to death in their home in Bedford, where eight young children were playing, has been jailed for life.

Jordan Quailey plunged a knife into the chest of Christine Peters during a blazing row in their kitchen on the morning of the Royal Wedding Day, Friday 29 April 2011.

Having killed the mother of six, 30 years old Quailey left her body on a sofa in the living room telling the children she was asleep.
 
That night having left the children with a relative, Quailey spent it with a girlfriend at her home.
 
At Luton crown court on Thursday 17 May 2012, Quailey was jailed for life after a jury found him guilty of the murder of Chrissy, as she was known.
 
Judge Richard Foster said he must serve a minimum period of 16 years before he can be considered for release by the parole board.
 
Passing sentence the judge said "Friday April 29 2011 was a special day for most of this nation. It was a bank holiday for the wedding of Kate Middleton to Prince William.
 
"No doubt Chrissy Peters was looking forward like millions of others to watching the Royal Wedding on television and enjoying the day with her six children.
 
"But she was not to see that Royal Wedding because you took her life from her probably about 9 o clock that morning."
 
The judge said when he murdered her that morning, he didn't know that Chrissy was in the early stage of pregnancy because she hadn't told him.
 
Quailey was the father to four of Chrissy's six children who were all under 10 years old.
 
On the morning of her death in addition to her six children, Chrissy was also looking after two other young children of a friend.
 
Chrissy, 31, and and Quailey, lived at Wadsworth Court in Bedford with the children, although during the trial the jury heard he was in the habit of spending some nights away and there were two other "significant women" in his life.
 
The court heard it was a volatile relationship and there were incidents of domestic violence.
 
For an offence of battery on Chrissy in 2009 Quailey had been given a 16 week jail sentence suspended for two years and made the subject of a restraining order.

He was still subject to the suspended sentence when he killed her, but by then she had allowed him back into their home.
 
On the morning of April 29 a neighbour heard the couple arguing between 8am and 9am.
 
Ann Evans prosecuting said "When it started it sounded like Jordan was the aggressor, although both of them were shouting. The only sentence the neighbour managed to pick out was hearing Chrissy say that she was going to call the police."
 
The argument lasted just 10 minutes, said the prosecutor before "everything went quiet."
 
The prosecutor said at 10.40 that morning Quailey left a message on the phone of his cousin saying "I've f***** up."
 
Kemi Sogbesan a neighbour and close friend of Chrissy Peters said although they had planned to watch the Royal Wedding together, it wasn't until sometime between 12 and 2pm that she knocked on Chrissy's door.
 
Kemi was allowed into three story town house by the defendant who told her Chrissy was out.
 
What she didn't know was that Chrissy was lying dead on the sofa in the room next door.
 
While in the house one of Chrissy's young children had told Kemi She had seen mummy lying on a bed with her "eyes up"
 
The child, also referring to her father at the same time, raised her hand into a fist.
 
When members of his own family turned up Quailey claimed Chrissy was out at the shops.
 
That afternoon the defendant's uncle, Kelvin Qualiey,concerned about the defendant's demeanour, told him he was taking the children to his house and Chrissy could collect them later.
 
The prosecutor said at the uncle's suggestion, Jordan Qauiley then contacted the police and in a brief conversation with a 999 operator told her he had thrown a knife at Chrissy adding "I think she has passed away"
 
As a result officers went to Chrissy's home and after forcing their way in found her dead on the sofa.
 
The court was told she had been re dressed and a blood stained top and damaged bra that she had been wearing when she was killed was found in a plastic bag
 
Police discovered a green handled knife in a chest of drawers at the house which forensic tests showed to be the weapon used to kill Chrissy.
 
A post mortem revealed Chrissy had died from a single knife wound that had entered her body in the area of her left breast and was five inches deep causing damage to a lung and her heart.
 
It was the view of the pathologist that the force required to produce such an injury would be the equivalent to a moderately forceful punch, the court heard.
 
Quailey didn't give evidence during the trial.
 
Passing sentence Judge Foster said he had stabbed his partner such ferocity that that the blade of ther knife pierced her left lung.
 
The judge said "I accept it was not pre planned or pre meditated."
 
But he said Quailey had not shown any remorse and had moved the body, told lies and had not called the emergency service to try and save her.
 
The judge that spending the night with a girlfriend afterwards and having sex with her was "callous".