A HUSBAND stabbed and battered his wife to death in a "public execution" while on bail for attacking her five weeks earlier.
Robert Lee, aged 51, of Wentworth View, Wombwell, was today starting a life sentence and was warned by a judge that he would be 70 before he could be considered for release.
Handyman Lee stabbed his 51-year-old estranged wife Jane and clubbed her with a baseball bat.
Det Supt Martyn Bates, who led the murder investigation, said after the case: "The attack was extremely violent. It was committed in the middle of the day in a public place and indeed there were a number of witnesses.
"It was a horrific crime and a horrific scene for the eye witnesses and police.
"I can only describe it as an execution and a public one at that."
Lee, who must serve a minimum of 19 years, struck weeks after being granted bail by Barnsley magistrates and Sheffield Crown Court when accused of attempting to strangle his wife.
He had attacked her at their former marital home on Locke Street, Barnsley, and her injuries were described by one doctor as the worst she had seen from domestic violence in her 12-year career.
Nicholas Campbell QC, prosecuting, told Sheffield Crown Court on the day of the murder Lee tracked down his wife to a house she was cleaning on Little Westfields, Royston, and struck as she was getting into her car.
His wife's terrified screams could be heard and Lee was seen frogmarching the mum-of-two away from her car, repeatedly striking her with a baseball bat as they walked.
He then repeatedly stabbed her in her neck and back from behind, severing her jugular vein and causing her to bleed to death.
The horror was witnessed by grandmother Annette Eaden, pushing her grandson in his pram, and she intervened and urged Lee to stop.
Mr Campbell QC said: "Jane Lee was screaming, pleading - using the words 'Please don't do this Bob'.
"Mrs Eaden took out her mobile telephone and when the defendant saw that he produced a knife and threatened her with it.
"She saw the man responsible for this assault push a woman against a garage as of he was punching her - clearly the defendant was stabbing Jane Lee and it was then Mrs Eaden saw her drop to the ground bleeding."
Lee jumped into his wife's car and sped off before spending three days on the run in Cleethorpes - drinking in pubs.
Lee claimed the two knives used in the murder were part of his toolkit and said he had bought the baseball bat from a man in the pub the day of the killing.
His barrister Peter Kelson QC described the frenzied murder as "brutal and dreadful" and said he could offer no justification or excuses.
He said the couple had a "turbulent" marriage but insisted Lee had not set out to kill his wife on the day he struck, claiming he had simply wanted to "talk".
He said Lee "bears absolute sorrow for what he died".
Recorder of Sheffield Judge Alan Goldsack QC said: "No sentence can undo the consequences of the offence to the victim's family, who have been devastated by what you did."
READ MOREDrink and rage ruined marriage'Loving mum will never be forgotten'Main news indexMore Barnsley newsMore Rotherham newsMore Doncaster newsLatest sport.Check out the very latest on South Yorkshire's roads - including live traffic cameras on Sheffield's commuter routes - with our Traffic sectionThe full article contains 592 words and appears in Sheffield Star Barnsley newspaper.
