A mum was killed after she was stabbed and slashed 27 times on a second date with a man who told her four chilling words as she screamed for help.
Laura Robson met Ben Hughes properly the day before she was killed, with the pair getting on well and appearing as though they were at the beginning of a relationship. But, on her second night at his flat in Gateshead, Hughes murdered her for no apparent reason.
Hughes’ upstairs neighbour heard the horrifying sounds of Laura begging for help and savage Hughes’ callous reply as her life ebbed away. As she was being brutally attacked, Hughes told Laura: “You’re going to die.”
As his sentencing hearing began at Newcastle Crown Court the remorseless 39-year-old launched into a rant and made obscene gestures on a video-link from prison before swearing at a judge and absenting himself from the hearing. Laura’s devastated mum, Jill Evans, bravely went into the witness box to tearfully read her victim impact statement, in which she said Hughes had smiled and winked at her at a previous hearing. She also said Hughes had taken away a nine-year-old’s mum and left the whole family wondering why he killed Laura.
Jill said: “Since that night our world has been turned upside down. The hardest part is knowing Laura will never walk through the door again. That night is soul-destroying, knowing what he has done. I keep asking myself why would he do that to my daughter. To take her life the way he did is soul-destroying. Laura was a lovely lass and she still had her full life ahead of her.”
Of Hughes, she added: “To see him in court for the first time I felt sick just looking at him. For Hughes to smile and wink at us, I really hope justice is done because he has shown no remorse for taking her life. No words can describe how I feel, just lost.”
Jill said seeing Laura’s nine-year-old daughter left without her mum is “heartbreaking” and she added: “Laura’s children are destroyed by this, it’s heartbreaking to see everyone’s grief. Laura was loved by everyone with her beautiful smile. Life without Laura is a battle every day. Laura has been taken away from us by this awful person. I hope and pray he is put away and never comes out of jail for taking my Laura, who was so kind, caring and gorgeous. Our beautiful daughter, always in our thoughts. I promise Laura, justice will be done, I will make you so proud. Love you Laura.”
The court heard that on June 24 last year, Laura, 37, of Gateshead, contacted her friend, Megan Watson, to say she had seen a man in Greenside, Gateshead, who reminded her of her late ex partner and said his name was Ben Hughes. On Sunday July 21, Megan was on her way to a bus-stop when she was approached by Hughes, who told her he considered Laura attractive and gave Megan his phone number to pass on to her.
Megan rang Laura to tell her and she was “happy and excited” at the prospect of speaking to him. Laura rang him and told Megan they had got on well and were going to meet later that day. She went to his flat in Gateshead and the following morning she told Megan she was still at Hughes’ house and that they’d had a good night, reported ChronicleLive.
Around 11am, Laura went to Megan’s house and said they had got on really well and had kissed. While she was there, Hughes phoned Laura five or six times, which Megan found strange. Later that night, Megan tried to persuade Laura to spend the night with her but she insisted she wanted to go back to Hughes’ flat.
She drove there and they went for a walk and she later went back to his home. Texts between Laura and Megan initially seemed to indicate all was well but then at 10.03pm Laura texted her saying: “I love you so much, I’m coming down now though, it’s not good”. That was the last Megan heard from Laura, who also didn’t call her young daughter to say goodnight, which was unusual. The court heard it may be Laura had tried to leave after texting her friend but Hughes stopped her.
Meanwhile, a man who lived in the flat above Hughes had heard an argument and banging around 9pm. Prosecutor David Lamb KC said: “About 10pm he heard heavy breathing and it sounded like Laura was being choked, to him. The prosecution say at this stage the attack must have commenced.”
The concerned neighbour went to knock on Hughes’ door but received no answer. Mr Lamb said: “He returned to his own address, where he heard loud screams, groans and cries of fear asking for help. He describes the noises he was hearing from Laura as unlike anything he had heard before. He recorded those noises on his mobile phone.”
Laura was heard shouting: “Somebody help, I’m going to die, I’m going to bleed to death.” Callous Hughes was heard replying: “You are going to die anyway, you’re going to bleed out, no one is coming to help you, no one knows you are here.” The noises then suddenly stopped and it remained silent. The neighbour contacted the police and went back downstairs and listened at the door but there was no noise.
The police, who had been called at 10.15pm, arrived at 10.41pm. Hughes, who had changed into clean clothes, hidden the murder weapon under his mattress and washed blood off himself, was calm but looked shocked and was sweating profusely. He said: “Yous have caught me.”
Laura’s body was on the living room floor with a large amount of blood around her and nothing could be done to save her. Hughes had stabbed and slashed her with a kitchen knife at least 27 times – she had 13 stab wounds to the left side of her neck, 16 slash wounds to the same area and one defensive knife injury to her hand. One of the stabs had damaged her jugular vein and led to death. She also had bruising to her left eye and thumb.
Scientific evidence showed the attack started in the hallway on the threshold of the door into the living room. The attack went on for almost half an hour and afterwards Hughes dragged her along the floor to enable the living room door to be closed. Sentencing Hughes to life imprisonment with a minimum term of at least 17-and-a-half years before he can even be considered for parole, Judge Paul Sloan KC said: “The family are constantly asking themselves why, what caused you to act with such cruel brutality, but you have given no explanation.”
Judge Sloan said it was a “sustained and particularly brutal attack involving gratuitous violence” and added: “It will have been a terrifying ordeal for Miss Robson and will have resulted in her experiencing extreme physical pain and mental suffering before she succumbed.”
The court heard Hughes has 64 previous convictions, including for assaulting women. Peter Makepeace KC, defending, was asked by the judge if there was any explanation put forward for why he had killed Laura. He said: “All I can say is that it’s possible for a person to labour under significant psychiatric difficulties which don’t have any relevance to the sentencing exercise.”
