Missing chef Claudia Lawrence’s childhood friend was drowned in a river by her abusive partner, a court heard.
Vincent Morgan, 47, held “kind and gentle” Lisa Welford’s head under the water of the River Derwent in Malton, North Yorkshire, after breaking her leg in a vicious attack.
Leeds Crown Court heard Morgan broke a domestic violence protection order banning him from seeing Ms Welford, 48, in order to spend the day with her on April 24.
Joan Lawrence, Ms Lawrence’s mother, said her daughter and Ms Welford were “very close” as children and shared a “happy friendship” during their younger years.
She told The Mirror: “I was devastated. I felt numb with shock. How could two children that had grown up together have such terrible things happen to them.”
Morgan and Ms Welford had been drinking on a riverside path when a woman who knew them both saw Lisa lying injured on the riverbank at about 11.30pm.
While the woman phoned her ex-partner to get help, Morgan dragged Ms Welford into the river and held her under the water for a “significant period of time”, the court heard.
When police arrived they found Ms Welford in the river and Morgan on the riverbank claiming that she had jumped into the water.
‘Regularly violent’
Ms Welford, who had a son, was taken to hospital where it was found she had suffered head injuries, a bleed on the brain, fractured ribs, a fractured collar bone and a severely fractured femur. She was pronounced dead at 7.30am the next day.
Police said Ms Welford’s numerous and severe injuries, combined with low-growing branches at the scene, would have made it impossible for her to jump into the river as claimed by Morgan.
CCTV also showed her walking unaided, without any sign of injury, towards the river earlier that evening.
The court heard Morgan was “regularly” violent towards Ms Welford during their year as a couple and, at the time of her death, magistrates had imposed a third domestic violence prevention order designed to keep him away from her.
Rita Welford, Ms Welford’s mother, said in a victim impact statement that her daughter had loved Morgan but “was scared of what he would do to her if she upset him”.
Joy Oxley, her birth mother, said she would be “safe in the knowledge he will never harm another woman again, so long as he stays behind bars”.
‘Brutal and callous’
James Bourne-Arton KC, defending Morgan, said he had “struggled with alcohol addiction almost from the beginning of his work life unfortunately”.
Morgan was found guilty of murder and two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Ms Welford in the months before her death.
Jailing Morgan for life with a minimum term of 21 years, Judge Guy Kearl, the Recorder of Leeds, said Ms Welford’s life was “not untroubled” but that: “Those who knew her speak of someone who was kind and gentle, thoughtful and loved.”
He told Morgan: “For some years you were her partner, someone who ought to have cared for her and looked after her.
“However, over the past two decades, you have shown yourself to be a person who is violent, particularly when intoxicated with alcohol or drugs.
“When in drink you are brutal and callous, unable to control your desire for violence towards your partners.”
