TRACIE Andrews was starting a life sentence for murder last night after a jury rejected her claim that her fiancé, Lee Harvey, was stabbed to death by an unknown man in a road rage attack.
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TRACIE Andrews was starting a life sentence for murder last night after a jury rejected her claim that her fiancé, Lee Harvey, was stabbed to death by an unknown man in a road rage attack.
The 28-year-old mother, described during the four-week hearing as a woman of violent temper with a capacity for “profound deceit”, stood impassively, with arms folded, as the unanimous verdict was announced.
The nine women and three men on the panel took just over five hours to deliver their conclusion that it was Andrews who inflicted the fatal wounds in what the prosecution said was “an eruption of fury”.
Andrews's solicitor, Tim Robinson, said later that she would appeal.
The judge, Mr Justice Buckley, described the case as a tragedy and said he felt deeply for both families - a reference in particular to Danielle Harvey and Karla Andrews, the seven-year-old daughters respectively of Mr Harvey and Andrews.
Mr Harvey's mother, Maureen, who initially believed Andrews's account of her son's death, burst into tears at the verdict and hugged her husband, Ray. Mr and Mrs Harvey were in the public gallery of Birmingham Crown Court for every day of the trial. After the verdict, Mrs Harvey said: “Now perhaps I can put my son to rest.” Mr Harvey said: “We feel that justice has been done - not for us, for Lee.”
As Andrews, wearing a cream summer coat and her customary four-and-a-half inch heels, left the glass-fronted dock for the cells with a female prison officer on either side, it marked the end of a high-profile inquiry which began in a Worcestershire lane on Dec 1 last year.
Mr Harvey, 25, her boyfriend of two years who lived with her in the village of Alvechurch, near Redditch, died from 30 stab wounds. Andrews, drenched in his blood, was found with him at the roadside.
Before the judge passed sentence, the defence counsel, Ronald Thwaites, QC, said in mitigation that, had Andrews possessed “the courage to confront her own wrong-doing” from the start, the outcome of the case might have been different. Senior police officers have indicated that if she had told the truth about her fight with Mr Harvey, during which she was punched and had a clump of her hair torn out, she might have avoided prosecution for murder and faced a manslaughter charge on grounds of provocation.
Mr Thwaites said: “The court may wish to believe that the killing was the result of a spontaneous outburst of passion that overwhelmed Miss Andrews and which she converted into immediate and deadly action.”
She may not have realised in the heat of the moment how many times she stabbed her fiancé, Mr Thwaites said. Today she could wish only that she could put the clock back. “Lee Harvey has lost his life; the life of this woman is in ruins; she has a young daughter of just seven,” Mr Thwaites said.
“It is a case that arises out of tragic domestic circumstances. Perhaps the temperaments of the two people were wrong for each other. They were too similar. They enjoyed and endured a love-hate relationship that culminated in this tragedy.”