By Lucy Caulkett-
A mother-of-two was strangled by her partner hours after she said to him: “I know what you’re going to do, you’re going to kill me”, a court has heard.
Drug addict Jordan Thackray, 28, was jailed for life at Bradford Crown Court on Friday for murdering his partner Jessica King, 23, at their home in Halifax, West Yorkshire. He was ordered to serve a minimum of 17 years in prison. At one point during the hearing, the evil murderer wept in front of a packed gallery shocked and horrified at the wicked act of killing the mother of his children. King had ignored the advice of her family not to take him back because she desperately wanted to make the relationship work. Her decision would send her to an early grave.
In another tragic example of a woman playing with the devil, Thackray made the fatal mistake of taking back a dangerous man who had already threatened to inflict harm upon her. Now, her young children are without a father or mother.
The court heard that the pair had a “tumultuous” relationship and Thackray strangled Ms King on her bed while their two young daughters – aged four years and five months at the time – were elsewhere in the house.
Jason Pitter QC, prosecuting, told the court how the couple had a phone conversation hours before she was attacked, on the night of August 26, 2017.
Mr Pitter said Thackray had just returned from a four-week long absence on a drug binge and had found out Ms King had been seen with another man.
He said the defendant told his partner: “Slag. Watch what I do. If I can’t have you, no-one can.
“What to you think I’m going to do to you?”
The barrister said that in a “tragic, prophetic reply” Ms King said to Thackray: “I know what you’re going to do, you’re going to kill me.”
Mr Pitter said that, before he went away, the defendant messaged a friend, saying: “When I’m back, people are going in the graveyard brother, on my kids’ lives”
In a confession, Thackray admitted murder just before Christmas after he wrote a letter of confession.
He said in the letter that “I do not expect any forgiveness from nobody” but that he was “not a bad person”
Thackray said: “I deserve to be sentenced to life in prison”.
Thackray had served a four year prison sentence for grievous bodily harm with intent following an incident a decade before, which was not a domestic-related attack.
On Friday, Judge Jonathan Durham-Hall told Thackray: “When you murdered by strangling to death Jessica King you were killing the mother of your two children, in their home, on her bed, with her children – your children – nearby.”
He said: “The impact on this family is incalculable.”
Judge Durham-Hall said Ms King had allowed Thackray back home despite the threatening phone call and against the advice of her family because she wanted a positive future for the relationship.
“She must have known the risk but wanted desperately for life to be better,” he said.