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A husband who strangled his wife after a fight over frozen potato chips and then dumped her dismembered body in a rural park has been jailed for life for murder.
Thomas McCann, 49, strangled Yvonne, 46, his wife of 24 years, in the bathroom of their Stockport home after a fight over a bag of frozen potato chips left out of the freezer, the court heard. of the Manchester crown.
McCann then hacked up the body of the mother of four, stopping to send and reply to text messages to her children, pretending their mother was still alive.
He later told police, “I killed my wife and disposed of her as garbage,” after she “lost control and couldn’t stop.”
McCann was jailed for life Tuesday with a minimum term of 13 years and four months before parole. He will serve no less than 12 years in prison.
In sentencing, the judge, Alan Conrad QC, told the defendant: “Your actions after the murder constitute serious aggravating factors.
“The defense suggests a combination of self-interest and panic, but what you did makes a terrible case even more gruesome and even more disturbing for those concerned.
“Yvonne McCann was a woman with much to live for and much to look forward to when her life was so cruelly interrupted by you.”
Conrad said he had taken into account information provided by McCann’s attorney in mitigation, including a psychological report that showed he had low self-esteem and difficulties expressing himself.
The judge added that he had taken into account “the evidence before me that you have always been a hardworking family man who was a good father and also that you have expressed remorse for what you did.”
Earlier, Andrew Smith, the prosecutor, told the court that the couple met as teenagers and had been together for 32 years until McCann attacked his wife on May 23 last year, Saturday morning of the end of May holiday week.
Ms. McCann had started a relationship with another man around 2013, which led, she said, to her husband’s jealousy, the breakdown of the relationship, and ultimately his murder.
Smith said: “Apparently the trigger was some used frozen fries. During that discussion, it is now clear that the defendant attacked Yvonne, strangled her to death in the bathroom, and then dismembered her body in the bathroom. “
At the same time, he used his wife’s mobile phone, and his, to send and respond to text messages from his children, saying that they had had a fight and that his wife had left.
Parts of her body were discovered by dog walkers at Reddish Vale Country Park, Stockport, on the Monday of the holiday.
Police were alerted and found two bags, then four more a half mile away in another part of the park.
McCann was later caught on video loading garbage bags into his car and walking into the rural park.
He was later seen dumping eight plastic bags into a bin at the Bredbury recycling center.
In a statement on the impact of her children’s victim, Rachel Lawson, her daughter, said: “We are really all struggling with this. We love our mother very much, we also love our father ”.
