A serial sex offender with “perverted desires” was jailed for life for the rape and murder of Irish vet Catherine Gowing.
Clive Sharp (46) harboured fantasies of imprisoning and killing women to satisfy his sexual desires before the murder of his victim, Mold Crown Court heard.
Sharp left one woman tied to a bed after she refused his demands, then hours later killed his victim. He crept into the house of Miss Gowing in the dead of night before tying her to the bed and repeatedly raping her.
And in a further “callous act” after killing his victim, he mutilated her by dismembering the body. Sharp had twice been jailed for sex offences before he attacked Miss Gowing.
The victim, described as a “vibrant, wonderful woman” had the “great misfortune” of being good friends with the killer’s then-girlfriend, the court heard.
Sharp admitted murder last month and was jailed for life, with judge Mr Justice Griffith Williams ordering he serve a minimum of 37 years behind bars before being eligible for parole.
“This is a horrific, cold-hearted murder, carried out to gratify your perverted sexual desires,” the judge told Sharp.
“The proper inference must be she was subjected to various forms of sexual abuse. The likelihood was she was gagged to prevent her call for help. You are, on any view, a very serious danger to women.”
Dressed in grey jogging bottoms and a grey jumper, the defendant made no reaction as he was jailed but the victim’s sister, Emma, who sat in the public gallery just yards from the dock, did not take her eyes off the defendant throughout the 50-minute hearing.
Emma Gowing told the court in a victim impact statement: “My sister was a vibrant, wonderful woman, who lived life fully, with love, compassion, fun, adventure and joy.
“Our lives will never be the same.”
Sharp has a string of previous convictions for sexual offences, beginning when he was just 16, and he harboured perverted sexual fantasies.
He had been jailed twice for rape and sexual assault and told probation and prison authorities of his long-standing fantasies involving imprisoning, raping and murdering women.
Andrew Thomas QC, prosecuting, told the court: “This was a sexually motivated murder in which the defendant entered Miss Gowing’s house in the middle of the night, tied her up and raped her.
“He killed her, then mutilated her body by cutting it into pieces and disposing of the body in and around the River Dee.”