A “controlling and obsessive” boyfriend who stabbed his girlfriend 54 times with two knives has been found guilty of murder.
Ian Bennett, 38, denied murdering Kerry Woolley, 38, who was found dead at her home in July 2020.
Caroline Goodwin QC, prosecuting, at Birmingham Crown Court, said Ian Bennett was controlling and obsessive and had been in a relationship with Kerry for about six weeks.
Bennett, who had believed his girlfriend had cheated on him with another woman, tried to cover up what he had done by "weaving a web of deceit," it was claimed.
But prosecutors for the crown allege his lies were uncovered after police found evidence of him trying to dump evidence.
A judge at Birmingham Crown Court today found Bennett guilty of Kerry’s death.
His mother, Lynda Bennett, 63, also of Moordown Avenue, was found guilty of assisting an offender and doing an act intended to pervert the course of justice.
The jury took less than an hour to reach their verdicts on the pair.
Judge Melbourne Inman QC will sentence them tomorrow
Both defendants live at the same address in Moordown Avenue, Solihull.
Caroline Goodwin QC, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court, said that Ian Bennett had called the emergency services on July 12 last year to Miss Woolley's flat in Westley Heights off Warwick Road where she was found with fatal injuries to her neck in her bedroom.
She said "That call was nothing other than a pre-planned call hours after he knew already she was dead.
"He had been a guest at her home the night before he attacked her. It was a deliberate attack to kill her."
Miss Goodwin continued: "It was both brutal and deliberate. She sustained 54 sharp force injuries, the majority in her neck area.
"This violence was done with two knives. Her injuries were catastrophic.
"Knowing precisely what he had done he bought himself time. He returned to his own home and destroyed evidence.
"He sought to duck and dive, misleading the police. Too cowardly to accept what he had done.
"He did all he could to cover up his involvement. The destruction of the evidence was done with the willing assistance of his mother.
"It was part of a masquerade. He was the hard-done boyfriend who had found his girlfriend dead. "
Miss Goodwin said that previously Bennett and Miss Wooley had been out together where they had met another couple in a wine bar and that the defendant had taken cocaine.
She said they had returned to one of the other couple's flats but Bennett then accused Miss Woolley of "cheating" with the other woman.
Miss Goodwin told the jury: "We say the paranoid, obsessive and controlling way he behaved came to the fore."
"Angry" Ian Bennett allegedly told Kerry Woolley's sister he had broken the victim's TV during an argument.
