Girlfriend ‘Stabbed More Than 80 Times For Trying to End Relationship’

A jealous man stabbed his girlfriend more than 80 times after she tried to end their relationship, a court has heard.

Laura Davies, 21, died after the alleged attack near the Essex Horse and Pony Protection Society base in Basildon, Essex, where she lived and worked as a groom.

Jordan Taylor is accused of murdering Laura Davies for trying to end the relationship (Picture: SWNS)

Chelmsford Crown Court was told the attack was so forceful that the knife used was left badly bent.

Jordan Taylor, 22, of Basildon, is standing trial after pleading not guilty to murder.

Prosecutor Peter Gair said: ‘We say her life was taken by this man during a sustained and brutal attack with a knife.

Laura Davies at work at the Essex Horse and Pony Protection Society(Picture: SWNS) ‘That attack was as a direct result of her telling the defendant that their relationship was over.

‘Whether it was motivated by jealousy or anger or a mixture of both and other emotions, he exacted a terrible revenge on her which caused her to die at the scene.

’On the night of her death, Miss Davies had cooked a meal for them both at the flat they shared at the sanctuary.

She had decided earlier that day to end the relationship but to let him continuing living at the flat as she did not want to make him homeless.

Police later found plates of uneaten food on the kitchen table, suggesting events had escalated quickly.

Taylor is accused of stabbing Laura more than 80 times (Picture: SWNS) Mr Gair told jurors that Taylor initially attacked her in the flat. She fled outside in her pyjamas but he chased after her and killed her in an area known as the Wishing Well before dragging her body to some nearby bushes.

Pathologist Benjamin Swift said a post-mortem examination found she had suffered at least 80 stab wounds. There were also signs she had been stuck all over her body.‘She suffered defensive wounds, suggesting she had been fighting for her life,’ Mr Gair said.

Witness Bruce Sequin arrived at the sanctuary to see a man holding a knife standing over a woman’s body and making downward stabbing motions.

He raised the alarm and when police arrived they found Taylor covered in blood.

Officers rushed to help Miss Davies and she gasped ‘help’ before losing the strength to speak, Mr Gair said.

In the months before the killing, friends had become concerned about the couple’s relationship, the court heard.

Mr Gair said: ‘You will hear evidence that he would take umbrage at her working with other young men and displayed a controlling nature, telling her for example what she could and could not wear.‘By the summer she had become quiet and subdued. It’s clear that, towards the end of the relationship, it was not happy.’

The case continues.

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