A besotted labourer was today starting a life sentence in jail after he strangled his former girlfriend while her millionaire father slept downstairs.
Daniel Edmunds could not accept that Greer Lawrance, his first serious girlfriend, had ended their relationship, Bradford Crown Court heard. He repeatedly told friends and even complete strangers he would kill her.
Edmunds, 25, of Bonegate Avenue, Brighouse, admitted murdering Miss Lawrance, pictured, at her parent's house at Kaffir Road, Edgerton, Huddersfield, last October. A charge of rape was held on file.
Andrew Dallas QC, prosecuting, told how Miss Lawrance's friends said their year-long relationship "was not happy" and that Edmunds had been "jealous and possessive".
He said the pair had worked in Spain together but, when they returned, Miss Lawrance told him the relationship was over.
Edmunds became "preoccupied" about killing her and was repeatedly heard to say "If I can't have her no-one else can".
Miss Lawrance, whose family had built business success in property, computers, music and giftware markets, worked as a sales agent for her father while studying part-time at Huddersfield Technical College.
Edmunds once spoke of killing her with a hammer and another time told a friend he was "going to her home to surprise her".
"He said he was going to see a psychiatrist and said he would get away with just ten years," said Mr Dallas.
"He said 'Why should I kill myself when I can get away with killing her?'".
But the court also heard he cut his wrists, jumped from a moving car and tried to strangle himself.
Edmunds's mother said he was "besotted" with Miss Lawrance, having fallen "head over heels" in love.
On the night Miss Lawrance died, the pair had met in a Huddersfield bar, although she had insisted on bringing a friend because she was so wary of him. There had been some contact between them since the split, with Miss Lawrance trying to "let him down gently", said Mr Dallas.
After a row, he left the bar and told a taxi driver he was going to kill her "in a nice way".
Later, he went to her parents' eight-bedroom house. Miss Lawrance was in bed on the third storey and her father was asleep on the first.
Edmunds climbed scaffolding by the side of the house, jumped on to a flat roof and broke a window to get in.
"What happened after that, only he can say," said Mr Dallas.
Edmunds later told a doctor: "We started having sex and she pushed me away. I strangled her until her lips turned blue."
In a different version he said they had had sex and afterwards Miss Lawrance told him to go home. After feeling rejected and "used", he strangled her.
The court heard some of Miss Lawrance's injuries suggested "forcible sexual activity."
After taking Miss Lawrance's car Edmunds later arrived home where he cut his wrists and called the police, telling them he had killed her.
Roger Thomas QC, mitigating, said psychiatric reports showed that Edmunds was suffering from abnormality of mind.
Mr Thomas said Edmunds was not a cold- blooded killer but was suffering from a mental disorder.
"He took no weapon with him and killed by strangulation," he said.
Passing sentence on what he described as an "appalling act" Judge Alistair McCallum said: "You will have been told by your counsel there's only one sentence I can pass and that's one of life, which I now impose."
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