A womanising brute from Oldham, who stabbed his secret mistress to death after he amassed a string of lovers behind his wife’s back, was jailed for life today.
Muscular father of four Andre Bright, 30, murdered Victoria Adams at her home after she vowed to spend his £1,500 gambling winnings on clothes and other items for their baby.
Afterwards when he refused to give himself up to police, Bright who had consumed four times the drink driving limit and was high on cocaine and cannabis had to be shot with a 50,000 volt Taser gun only for him to retort, ‘I enjoyed that. You need more volts’.
Miss Adams was found dying in the hallway with two stab wounds and passed away in hospital – the fatal stabbing occurred whilst the couple’s daughter laid asleep upstairs.
Inquiries revealed Bright had a string of convictions for violence and would boast to pals: “In the estate where I’m from it’s cool to carry a knife.”
In the hours before the killing, he had stabbed a bouncer in the face with a metal afro comb after he was refused entry to a nightclub.
Bright married in 2009 and had three children but had several girlfriends and secretly fathered a fourth child by 22-year old travel and tourism graduate Victoria without his wife knowing during a stormy six year on-off affair.
Victoria found the roll of money and had intended to keep it ‘given what little he had done for their daughter’.
At Manchester Crown Court, Bright shrugged his shoulders as he was convicted by a jury of murder and assault after a trial.
Ordering him to serve a minimum 17 years the judge Mrs Justice Susan Carr told Bright: “You have a history of violent offending and show no remorse whatsoever for the victim’s family.
“You had a wife and three children and other girlfriends from time to time and it is clear you were using Victoria for sex.
“Whether your motive was the fact she had found and spent some of your money or you felt trapped in some way by the arrival of your child doesn’t matter. You have a propensity for violence and this was sheer violence.
“I’m quite satisfied you intended to kill Victoria when you stabbed her. Victoria’s family and friends have attended every day of this trial.
“Mr Adams described in graphic terms the ordeal of the trial which has intensified their despair and anguish.
“He speaks with pride of a wonderful daughter who did well at school, went to college, was a hard-worker with a vibrant social life and many friends.
“She had everything to look forward to. He describes her as beautiful, intelligent, funny, happy and wonderful. So many people loved her and have had their hearts broken.
“The pain he and his wife and family feel is difficult to describe. He describes a total debilitating grief, an incredible sense of loss is with them all of the time and it has affected the lives of so many others.
“The pain her daughter will suffer – the guilt and sadness as she grows up. Her daughter has to live her life without her amazing mother.”
Friends and relatives of the victim wept, screamed and cheered as the unanimous verdicts were returned.
The court heard Miss Adams met Bright when she was just 16 and he was 23 and they began a relationship, however he would have a number of girlfriends at any one time and already had other children.
Mr Mark Kellet, prosecuting said they would only meet up late at night and never did things as a couple with Bright using Miss Adams flat in Oldham as a place to go ‘when drunk or high’.
When she took a pregnancy test in January 2013, she sent a text message to Bright telling him that she was expecting his child – but he told her to delete his number and never speak to him again.
The tragedy occurred on December 8 2013 three days after Miss Adams had a bust up with Bright after she went out with friends for the first time since the birth of their daughter the previous August.
Bright had turned up at her property and began telephoning other girls in front of her and put them on loudspeaker.
When they argued Bright spat in Victoria’s face, told her he was going to have sex with her friends and threw a bottle at her.
“She had run from the house fearing that Andre Bright would kill her,” said Mr Kellet.
“She later turned up at a friend’s house crying, wearing a dressing gown and no shoes. She told Bright’s sister Michelle Dunkley that ‘Andre’s conduct had become frightening’ and when he turned up at the flat again she sent a text message to Ms Dunkley saying, ‘I don’t wanna stay here but he’s in such a bad way’.”
Bright and two other friends later visited another house in the area, buying three bottles of wine on the way, before he returned to Victoria’s flat in a taxi at around 9.35am.
Just half an hour later he phoned the emergency services and said: “Can I have an ambulance please. Someone is dying in front of me. Someone has stabbed her. I don’t know what’s happened. She’s dying.”
When police arrived at the scene Bright was stood with a ‘fixed, almost vacant gaze’, with his hands in his pockets while Victoria lay dying on the floor near the front door.
Fearing he was still holding the knife, he was tasered by a PC. When warned that if he moved it would be deployed again, Bright replied: “I enjoyed that. You need more volts in your taser.”
Mr Kellet said: “A female officer, states that as the defendant was being escorted out of the premises, he looked directly at her and smiled. The Crown say the defendant was doing as he did, seeking to intimidate police officers.
“A paramedic saw Victoria Adams lying in the hallway of the property on her back with her legs facing into the sitting room.
“She was bleeding heavily from the chest and officers were administering first aid. He tried to question her, but she kept asking where the baby was.
“The baby was upstairs, safe, where the officers could take control.”
Post-mortem results show Victoria had been stabbed once to the chest, causing a wound 8cm deep, and once to the abdomen which was 12cm deep and had penetrated her kidney.
Bright admitted killing Victoria but said it was accident as she had ‘run into him’ whilst he was holding the knife.
The court heard he had convictions dating back to March 2001 when he was about 14 after he shot a man in the face with an air rifle causing him to lose the sight in one eye.
He had also stabbed two men during a bar room brawl which left one victim with a perforated bowel.
He had other previous convictions for beating up a former girlfriend who confronted him about his infidelity.
Just three months before the murder police arrested Bright outside a nightclub where he was found to have a pair of scissors in his pocket.
Det Ch Insp Howard Millington of Greater Manchester Police said after the case: “Victoria had a young daughter and tragically, she will grow up never really knowing who she was.
“Not only has Bright robbed her of her mum, he has also taken away a beloved daughter of Victoria’s parents. They have been left truly devastated by what happened that morning and will never truly recover.”
Story via Cavendish Press.
Image courtesy of Adam Jones, via Global Panorama, with thanks.
