Laughing killer told 999 operator "I've just stabbed the missus, think she's dead mate"

Shane Clarke repeatedly rammed the Philips screwdriver into Joanne Bishop's chest so hard that the pattern of the hilt left a bruises around each wound.

He left her bleeding on the floor of her bedroom and texted friends that he was not going to work and stated "oops" before he called 999 for an ambulance.

In the chilling call he told the operator: "I've just stabbed the missus." He then laughed out loud and said "think she's dead mate."

Wearing a prison issue grey tracksuit the 52-year-old gave judge Ian Pringle, sentencing him at Oxford Crown Court, the thumbs up when he was told he would have to serve 20 years before even being considered for parole and could be heard laughing again as he was lad away to the cells.

Matthew Walsh, prosecuting, said that after the stabbing Clarke was persuaded to go back to the house and let paramedics in who managed to revive the 39-year-old woman.

Police who arrived at the house in Milton Keynes, Bucks., initially arrested Clarke on suspicion of murder and he said: "S**t way to start a Tuesday morning costing the Government a million quid."

When paramedics found a pulse he was re-arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and Clarke replied: "Sweet. That's brill. Fuck those ambulances are great aren't they."

Miss Bishop suffered irreprerable brain damage and died in hospital four days after the attack which happened on May 29 this year.

Today/Yesterday (Thurs) Judge Pringle unusually agreed to sentence Clarke at his request, just minutes after he admitted the charge of murder and without a full post mortem examination report.

Judge Pringle said: "The sheer nature of this attack was utterly brutal.

"The use of a screwdriver to attack the victim was appalling. The number of times that screwdriver was inserted into his victim - no less than 29 times - almost beggars belief.

"It is said that the defendant reacted in this way because of something Miss Bishop said about the nature of their relationship. She had every right to say that she wanted you out of her home.

"She was then killed in her own home in her own bed."

"In the early hours of Tuesday May 29 around 6am a neighbour of Joanne Bishop heard a scream.

"They couldn't make out what that scream was though it seemed a cry for help.

"They didn't go around to Miss Bishop's house at the time although little could have been done for her.

"Joanne Bishop was 39 years of age and had been co-habiting with the defendant Shane Clarke for roughly six years.

"Their relationship had been rather rocky in the months leading up to this offence and the defendant was convinced Joanne Bishop was having an affair although there is no evidence of this.

"At about 6.20am that morning the defendant sent texts to his colleagues saying he would not be at work. At 6.31am the defendant called an ambulance and we have heard the defendant's call.

"He was to admit he had just stabbed 'his missus'. He said it three times as the call receiver couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"He was very calm and relaxed bearing in mind what he had just done. His attitude towards what he had done was awful, extraordinary.

"The injuries, although we are not in possession of a full pathology report, were no less than 29 stab wounds inflicted with a screwdriver.

"It was a screwdriver that was kept by your bedside to clean out a pipe used for drugs. You rammed it into her up to the hilt the shape of which could be seen as a bruise around each wound."

Matthew Walsh, prosecuting, said the attack happened in Tinkers Bridge, Milton Keynes, Bucks.

" This was a savage attack on the defendant's partner, a frenzied attack after which she ultimately died."

He also told the court that Clarke had served a 12-year sentence for luring a man to a park and slashing his face with a cut throat razor in the 1980s as well as having two convictions for assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He had also been imprisoned for drug offences.

Philip Evans QC, defending, said the father of two's life had been blighted by drink and drugs and he wished to expresss remorse for his actions.

Clarke, of Buckingham Road, Bletchley, admitted one count of murder.