Boxer, 21, jailed for killing girlfriend in post-sex row attack
AN AMATEUR boxer has been jailed for 16½ years for killing his girlfriend. He was caught when police secretly bugged his house.
James Tobin, 21, slapped his girlfriend, Kellie Gillard, 25, in a “post-sex argument” causing her to bang her head on the wall.
Ms Gillard, 25, died from a ruptured artery in hospital but Tobin denied being to blame for her fall in the bedroom at his home in Port Talbot.
Swansea Crown Court heard that detectives put a secret recording device in his home to hear him confess the killing to his father.
Prosecutor Vincent Coughlin said police installed a covert listening device in his house which heard him saying to his father that he “put her to sleep”.
Mr Coughlin said: “Officers recorded a conversation between Tobin and his father in which he said his partner had been ‘chopsy’ to him and so he had ‘put her to sleep’. The device also picked up on his father saying: ‘You sparked her?’ Tobin replied: ‘Yes’.”
Tobin was later arrested on suspicion of murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Mr Coughlin said the couple had a raging row after having sex. He said Ms Gillard kicked Tobin in the head before Tobin slapped her.
Mr Coughlin said: “During the argument, she kicked him to the nose, causing his nose to bleed and damaging a filling. He concedes that in a short exchange of violence, after he had been kicked in the head, he must have delivered a number of forceful blows with an open hand. She collided with the wall and fell from the bed.”
Mr Coughlin said Ms Gillard was “as unconscious as a human being could be” when she was rushed to hospital in April.
She was put on a life-support machine before her organs could be donated by her mother, Tracey Gillard. Her organs went on to save the lives of six others.
In a victim statement, Mrs Gillard said: “Our world fell apart when our beautiful Kellie was taken away from us.
“My last memory of my beautiful daughter was her in hospital fighting for her life. She didn’t stand a chance with James Tobin. I am no longer capable of smiling – all my happiness is gone.”
Tobin pleaded guilty to manslaughter and said he was under the influence of cocaine and alcohol.
The court heard he was twice the legal drink-drive limit but she was under the limit. Both had a history of cocaine use.
In a statement read to the court, he said: “I cannot blame anyone else for what happened that night or how I conducted myself after it. I cannot begin to tell you, and more importantly Kellie’s family, how sorry I am.”
Ignatious Hughes QC, defending, said: “This is a heartfelt expression of his remorse. This was not a man going berserk and killing somebody deliberately.”
Sentencing Tobin, Judge Keith Thomas said: “You are a trained boxer and have previous convictions for violence.
“You pose a significant danger to the public.”