The estranged husband who stabbed Sally Turner 68 times in her daughter’s home has been locked up after he launched the brutal attack when he became ‘obsessed’ with her sexual activity.
Harry Turner was branded ‘selfish’ for the sustained attack on his wife after he learned she was having an affair with a taxi driver.
The 50-year-old suffered a catalogue of injuries in the sustained assault with Turner having to use a second knife after damaging the blade of a kitchen knife due to the ferocity of the attack.
Mrs Turner was described as a loving grandmother as Judge James Adkin sentenced the 54-year-old postal worker to life in prison with a minimum term of 17 years and 120 days.
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Jurors had heard how Turner admitted attacking his wife on June 22 last year but denied murder as he had no recollection of carrying out the fatal assault.
The judge said: “You became sexually obsessed with Sally Turner, you tried to catch her having an affair, using recording devices, you also got workmates to spy on her.
“I accept you had affection for your step grandchildren, but you allowed your anger to take precedence over their needs.”
Turner was unanimously convicted of Sally Turner’s murder in her daughter’s house on Cuthbert Avenue, Durham, following a trial at Teesside Crown Court.
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Jurors had heard how the estranged couple had met up for coffee on the morning of the murder before Turner launched the brutal attack.
Sentencing him, the judge said: “There was screaming and then muffled footsteps, heard by a neighbour, as your wife tried to escape you.
“You had launched a brutal attack on her, stabbing her with a large kitchen knife until that broke and then going back to the kitchen, selecting another knife and continuing to attack her.
“The worst injury was a slash-type wound to her throat.”
He added: “I’m sure you attacked her due to her infidelity. The placing of the ring by her head was done by you to show the world that you had ended that relationship on your terms but murdered your wife.”
Judge Adkin told Turner that his own evidence was full of lies and self-pity as he locked him up for life.
Mark McKone KC, prosecuting, told the judge how Mrs Turner was attacked over a number of minutes and it would have caused her some mental suffering to her.
He said: “All of the wounds were inflicted while Sally was still alive, so it follows that she must have been aware of a significant number of these blows at least.”
Andrew Ford KC, in mitigation, said his client had suffered mental health difficulties following the breakdown of his marriage when he discovered she was having an affair with a taxi driver.
He told Turner had not set out with the intention to kill but accepted that he carried out the fatal knife attack ‘spontaneously’ after suffering an ‘extreme example of disordered thought, irrational behaviour and deadly violence’.
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Taxi Driver Philip Smith had told the jury he became concerned when Sally failed to come out of the house to pick up her disabled granddaughter and learned she was laid in a pool of blood.
“I knew something was a matter but I didn’t want to see,” he said. “I heard (her daughter) say, ‘she’s on the floor, there’s blood all over.
“I know I’m a coward but I didn’t want to see anything.
“I phoned 999 and coppers came from everywhere, and one jumped over the wall and went straight into the door.”
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