A Tenby man has today (Thursday) been found guilty of murdering his partner in a frenzied knife attack.

The jury at Swansea Crown Court returned a majority verdict finding Steven Daniel Williams, 31, guilty of stabbing Joanna Hall to death in March last year.

The jury had been deliberating for more than eight hours.

Miss Hall, 35, suffered around 40 stab wounds and died 19 days later in hospital.

Despite her terrible injuries, Miss Hall was able to tell emergency services personnel and her sister that Williams had carried out the attack.

Williams will be sentenced in due course.

Miss Hall’s family are expected to release a statement outside Swansea Crown Court.

The trial had previously heard how Williams claimed Miss Hall had been attacked while he walked to a shop and back. He was gone for around 15 minutes.

But Miss Hall was able to tell her sister, Georgina Marwick that Williams had turned up the night before at her flat “drunk on whisky.”

According to Mrs Marwick, Miss Hall told her: “He flipped. He tried to rip a radiator off the wall. He stabbed me. I asked him to ring for help and he said ‘no’. He said I would have to take my own life or he would do it for me.

“If I told anyone he would come back and finish me off. He said he did not want to kill me but he did not want to go back into prison. He sat with me all night.”

Miss Hall could be heard asking for help in the background of a 999 call that Williams finally made after returning to the flat after walking to the Tenby branch of Sainsbury’s.

He left the flat at about 7.30am and returned at 7.45am.

Cross examining Williams at Swansea crown court Elwen Evans QC, prosecuting, said: “You’re saying during that time somebody unknown goes into the flat without you seeing them, attacks Ms Hall, stabs and slashes her repeatedly and has got rid of the weapon or weapons and is totally out of the flat before you return?”

“Yes”, Williams said.

The jury was shown CCTV of Williams on his way to Sainsburys and he was asked if he had blood stains on his jeans in the images?

“It looks like it,” he said.

When Williams rang 999 he told the emergency services Joanna had been stabbed “a couple of hours ago”, but told the court he had meant to say “an hour ago”.

During the call he also said she had been stabbed about 20 times despite not being able to see the wounds.

Williams told the jury the number had “just come to mind” as he could see “blood pouring out of her jumper”.

The judge, The Honourable Mrs Justice Nicola Davies DBE, who finished summing up the case yesterday (Wednesday) reminded the jury of the evidence given by Professor Harris, an expert in emergency medicine.

It was his opinion that the injuries were sustained some two to five hours before Williams claimed because of how low Miss Hall’s temperature had dropped.