A horse sanctuary worker was stabbed more than 80 times outside her workplace in a “sustained and brutal” attack by her ex-boyfriend, a court 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. Scoop has more:
Jordan Taylor, 22, of Basildon, is standing trial after denying murder at Chelmsford Crown Court. Prosecutor Peter Gair said Miss Davies, an animal lover, had told Taylor she wanted to end their relationship shortly before the incident late on July 3 last year. He added: “We say her life was taken by this man during a sustained and brutal attack with a knife. She suffered 80 knife wounds to her body. 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 of a mixture of both and other emotions, he exacted a terrible revenge on her which caused her to die at the scene.” Mr Gair said that the attack began inside Miss Davies’s flat, which she had shared with Taylor. Despite ending their relationship, she had chosen to allow Taylor to continue living there and had cooked a meal for them both.
Police later found plates of uneaten food on the kitchen table, suggesting events had escalated quickly, the court heard. Wearing just her pyjamas, Miss Davies fled outside, but Taylor followed – eventually killing her in an area known as the Wishing Well, Mr Gair added. A witness arrived at the sanctuary to see a man holding a knife standing over a woman’s body. He raised the alarm and when police arrived they found Taylor covered in blood, jurors were told. Officers rushed to help Miss Davies and she gasped “help” before losing the strength to speak.
In the months before the killing, friends had become concerned about their 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.” Taylor denies murder and the trial continues.