"Bullying" bride Sharon Edwards gets life for murder of lawyer husband

A "bullying and violent" new bride has been jailed for life after she was convicted of murdering her solicitor husband.

Sharon Edwards, 42, stabbed to death criminal defence lawyer David Edwards, 51, at their home in Chorley, Lancashire, just two months after they married in Las Vegas.

Jailing her at Manchester Crown Court for a minimum of 20 years, Mr Justice William Davis told the defendant she had "robbed people of a decent man".

Mr Edwards was the victim of "forceful bullying" and had suffered at the hands of Edwards during the "turbulent" year-long relationship in which he was regularly beaten and belittled, the trial heard.

It culminated in him being fatally stabbed in the heart with a kitchen knife on August 23 last year.

Friends and colleagues warned the "besotted" solicitor to leave domineering and possessive Edwards after he began turning up on the court circuit with black eyes, scratches and bite marks - even disclosing to one that his wife had hit him with a coffee table and an ashtray.

The court heard that part of Edwards's rage was because her new husband had been made redundant and was later sacked, having previously held a partnership status at Stanley H Cross & Co which was to be taken over by Kevills.

The trial heard that the killing was to be the second attack in as many successive days in which Edwards had used a knife in anger against Mr Edwards - who she knew would never fight back or call the police.

After he was found dead, Mr Edwards's bruised and cut body was to further reveal the extent of the regular assaults.

It showed 60 external injuries, of which 30 were incised or prod wounds, including stab wounds to his thigh, knee, finger and a shallow wound to his scalp.

Edwards claimed his injuries were a result of her alcoholic husband falling over when in drink.

In her defence, she claimed Mr Edwards walked into the knife she was holding in a row about tax credits only hours after they returned from an all-expenses paid Spanish holiday.

The jury, which began deliberating on Monday afternoon, disbelieved her version of events and unanimously convicted her of murder.