Murderer's wait for length of sentence (From Western Telegraph)

Murderer's wait for length of sentence

The man who stabbed to death the mother of his young daughter started a life sentence on Wednesday.

But Glasgow-born Bobby Watson will have to wait until the Home Secretary David Blunkett decides on the minimum period that he will have to serve.

Judge Diehl, the Recorder of Swansea, will write to the Lord Chief Justice setting down the minimum sentence. And Lord Woolf will review the case and make his own recommendation. Both will be passed on to the Home Secretary for his final decision.

Watson, aged 35, had denied murdering Cindy McAteer outside her home, off Main Street, Pembroke.

He claimed it was possible she accidentally impaled herself on the blade of a carving knife while they 'jostled and pushed each other', even though one of the stabs penetrated three inches into her stomach.

Cindy, aged 29, died in the front garden of a house as she tried to get help. She bled to death.

The jury took more than two days to find him guilty, by a majority of ten to one.

The 12th juror had to be excused to go to York for his daughter's graduation.

There were gasps of relief from Cindy's relatives, friends and supporters when the verdict was returned.

The jury had had no idea of Watson's violent past - that he had been convicted of threatening to kill Cindy and that he had also intimidated a witness in the murder trial in relation to an assault on her.

Watson had armed himself with a large kitchen knife after he found his former girlfriend Sarah Jones in bed with Gareth Mann.

He then discovered Cindy at her home, talking to Julian Griffiths. He scared Julian off and returned to twice plunge the knife into Cindy's stomach. Watson did not bother to telephone an ambulance or call 999 and left Cindy to bleed to death, the court heard