Body-in-the-suitcase killer given life term.
Byline: Robin TurnerA HUSBAND who murdered his wife and dumped her body in a suitcase off an M4 bridge near Bridgend was yesterday jailed for her murder.
Paul Grabham, 26, had denied murdering 23-year-old wife Kirsty during a month-long trial at Swansea Crown Court.
But he was branded "cold, callous, calculating and utterly selfish" by trial judge Mr Justice Butterfield.
The married couple, both from Cornelly, ran a sex-for-hire business from their Swansea home.
The murder was discovered when a shocked lorry driver unzipped the blood-soaked suitcase in a remote lane off the M4 at Cefn Cribwr near Bridgend and discovered the young woman's body.
Yesterday a jury found Grabham guilty unanimously after taking five hours to reach a verdict.
Sentencing Grabham to life with a minimum 19 years before parole, Mr Justice Butterfield said: "Just over a year after you promised to love and cherish your new bride you battered and strangled her to death.
"It was a vicious and sustained attack fuelled by drink and drugs you'd taken.
"As if that was not terrible enough, she was not even in death to get the decency and dignity she was without doubt entitled to, you crammed her bleeding and still-warm body into a suitcase and dumped it like so much rubbish into a place where you undoubtedly hoped it would not be found for many years."
After killing his wife and placing her body in the suitcase, said the judge, Grabham then pursued "prostitutes, old girlfriends and those interested in casual sex".
He told the defendant, who displayed no emotion: "Your actions were cold, callous, calculating and utterly selfish. During this trial I've looked for the merest flicker of remorse or regret from you but I've seen none."
The victim's mother Catherine Bloomfield, told the court in a victim impact statement: "Paul Grabham has not only taken my baby from me but he has also robbed me of being a grandmother to Kirsty's babies.
"He has robbed Sonia and Hayley of their devoted sister."
Kirsty's sister Sonia Duignan added: "The day Kirsty died our hearts died along with her. We never even had the chance to say goodbye.
"The sentence passed on Paul Grabham is nothing compared to the life sentence imposed on us. Our lives are no longer complete without our Pink Princess."
DCI Dorian Lloyd who headed the murder investigation, said: "The judge was right, he was really cold, really calculating and really selfish.
"Not once in our dealings with him did he show any remorse for the death of his wife."
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| Publication: | South Wales Echo (Cardiff, Wales) |
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| Date: | Feb 5, 2010 |
| Words: | 426 |
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