Thursday, June 12, 2008

Boyfriend sentenced to 17 to life in British hairdresser murder

From the BBC

A man who strangled his beautician girlfriend has been convicted of her murder and jailed for life. James Bellass, 36, of Walton-Le-Dale, Lancashire, attacked Jillinda Fisher, 26, after a heated argument at the flat above the salon where she worked. Preston Crown Court was told how her mother found her body above the Sybaris beauty salon at the Green in Eccleston, in the early hours of 15 December.

Bellass was found guilty on Monday and must serve at least 17 years in jail.
The prosecution had refused to accept his guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Det Supt Steve Brunskill, said: "Only James Bellass knows what drove him to cruelly murder Jillinda Fisher in the early hours of Saturday morning.


"Jill was a lovely young woman, much loved by her family and friends with a promising life ahead. Bellass is the sort of man parents dread their daughters meeting and forming a relationship with. He has a total lack of respect for women, and when fuelled by alcohol quickly resorts to the immediate use of extreme violence. This is one of the saddest cases I have had to investigate, and the whole investigative team was moved by the love quite openly displayed by Jill's parents and friends."

Ms Fisher's father, Barry Fisher, said: "No length of jail sentence for James Bellass could ever justify the devastating loss of our only child Jill."

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