Reign Of TerrOr
As Sharon Edwards begins a life sentence for the murder of her solicitor husband we reveal how the mother- of- four was a ticking time bomb with a history of violence
N THE one hand there was a mother- of- four who believed she had found in her new husband not just a provider but a passport to social advancement – only to have her expectations dashed when he was made redundant.
On the other, a vulnerable man of a certain age, who was so in thrall to his violent partner that he felt unable to move out or seek help from the police.
Superficially the pair made a plausible couple. David had practised law for 26 years, was a partner in respected local firm Stanley H Cross, spoke three languages and lived in a £ 320,000 four- bedroom detached house. Sharon, for her part, dressed well, sported expensive rings and kept her nails well manicured.
But the fault lines in their relationship were exposed early on. The couple even rowed as they were being driven to Birmingham’s jewellery quarter to buy her engagement ring. David was unhappy because Sharon had got a part- time job at the Chorley branch of household goods retailer BrightHouse that involved Saturday shifts – meaning she couldn’t use the season ticket he had bought her for his favourite football club Chorley FC.
As their relationship
became
TILL DEATH DO US PART: Within weeks David was dead, stabbed by a knife, right, at home, top increasingly volatile colleagues at his law firm and officials at court began to realise that something was very wrong. She lambasted him as a “has been” in front of strangers and even called him at work screeching: “What sort of f****** man are you?” David began turning up at work with black eyes and scratches on his face but when concerned friends and colleagues asked what had happened he would claim to have fallen down stairs or walked into doors.
Rosina McCarthy, who worked at a local magistrates’ court, witnessed David with “part of his ear not attached and teeth marks”. She said: “Sharon had picked up a glass coffee table and hit him over the head with it. He had lost an awful lot of weight, his clothes were shabby, he just didn’t seem to be himself.”
Despite the violence he suffered at the hands of his “domineering, possessive and very jealous” wife, David remained “besotted” with her and in June 2015 they travelled to Las Vegas to get married. Sharon wore a white sleeveless lace gown with a tiara and clutching a bouquet of lilies could be heard on their nine- minute wedding video telling David: “One year ago today you entered my life and I can honestly say you turned it upside down and swept me off my feet. You have shown me what true love is.”
But David was in less good shape. He had to wear make- up in a bid to disguise a black eye, something Sharon explained away by saying he had hit himself in the face with the bedside phone while calling room service in their hotel. Within weeks of returning from Vegas they were due to take another holiday, this time in Mallorca. However, just before they flew off to the sun, David got some bad news: his firm had been taken over by a rival and he was informed that he would be made redundant.
By the time the couple got back from Spain tensions had ratcheted up a gear. On the day of their return Sharon bought four bottles of wine from an off- licence and the alcohol fuelled a new level of violence.
That evening David’s 19- year- old stepdaughter found him in the bathroom bleeding from his chest and leg.
sHE confronted her mother who would only say she had not intended to hurt him. Despite David’s injuries the couple went to the pub where Sharon remained “drunkenly and callously unconcerned” about her stillbleeding husband’s welfare.
They were later given a lift home by a patrolling police officer who had seen Sharon screaming at her husband in the street. She could be heard on footage recorded on the officer’s body camera telling her husband: “I’m gonna f****** kill ya.” She added: “I swear David, when I wake up tomorrow I don’t know what mood I’m going to be in.”
The officer involved dismissed her threats as drunken ravings and dropped off the couple at their home. It was the last time David was seen alive.
Once in the house the two had another row, in the course of which Sharon says she took a knife off her husband. She claims her husband at some point later “walked on to the knife”.
Sharon said the couple went to bed, she performed a sex act on him and then left him to go to sleep. She only raised the alarm when she found him dead in bed seven hours later.
The jury did not buy her story, found her guilty and the judge sent enced her to life, which means she will serve a minimum of 20 years. Before sentencing, the court heard that Sharon had previous cautions and convictions related to domestic abuse including a 2004 attack on a former partner who was bitten on the forearm and punched in the face.
If only David had known that before he sent that fateful Facebook message.