Paul Irwin, A man from Whitehaven has been found guilty of murder after perpetrating a brutal and lethal sexual assault on his intermittent partner following a binge of lager and cocaine.
Tiffany Render, aged 34, succumbed to exsanguination due to a severe abdominal damage inflicted after a savage assault by Paul Irwin at his residence in Whitehaven on March 22.
Carlisle Crown Court was informed that Miss Render succumbed to a severe haemorrhage, and that three rooms in the residence of 50-year-old Paul Irwin were left blood-stained following his repeated physical assault on her.
A pathologist determined that 5ft 1in Miss Render, weighing under nine stones, experienced recurrent blunt force trauma inflicted by unemployed Paul Irwin.
After consuming cans of Stella Artois lager earlier and using cocaine during sexual intercourse with Miss Render, unemployed Paul Irwin, who is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 17 stones, inflicted significant violence while intoxicated, jurors were informed.
In evidence, the pathologist said Miss Render could have collapsed within 20 minutes and died within an hour, so savage was the attack and so rapid her blood loss.
The court heard Paul Irwin was handed a suspended prison sentence late last year for repeatedly hitting Miss Render with a wooden rolling pin, slapping and strangling her.
She had since alleged other assaults and, the prosecution alleged, was an extremely vulnerable woman trapped inside an aggressive violent and controlling relationship.
Prosecutor Iain Simkin KC told jurors: “Tiffany Render had become conditioned to obedience, was in thrall to the defendant and, irrespective of the risks to her own well-being, nevertheless visited him on March 22.”
Paul Irwin had twice been arrested and bailed by police with conditions not to contact Miss Render in the weeks before her murder. He called the ambulance service himself, late on March 22, claiming he had woken to find Miss Render dead.
In evidence, Paul Irwin described suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, which caused him to hear voices and hallucinate; but insisted his condition was fully medicated and under control in March.
Paul Irwin claimed Miss Render’s death was accidental. But during his trial — after giving evidence — he pleaded guilty to manslaughter, accepting an unlawfully killing, and also admitted a penetrative sexual assault upon her.
Today (fri) after almost four hours of deliberations, a jury of eight women and four men found Paul Irwin unanimously guilty of murder. He showed no emotion in the court dock, wearing a dark suit, as the verdict was delivered.
Trial judge Mrs Justice Foster heard a psychiatric report had been provided to the court by Paul Irwin’s legal team but announced that she would not pass sentence today.
The judge remarked that it had been a “distressing” case and told jurors they would be discharged from serving on future crown court juries for life.
Irwin faces a mandatory life prison sentence with Mrs Justice Foster due to set a minimum term for his service behind bars after hearing from prosecution and defence counsel. His punishment will be handed down on a date in the week of December 16 which is still to be fixed, and he remains remanded in custody.
Paul Irwin must sign the sex offenders’ register with immediate effect.
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