'˜Milton Keynes killer should never have been let out of prison', say former cellmates

The horrendous murder of 39-year-old Joanne Bishop was not the first time Clarke’s irrational temper had flared, they say.

In the late 1980s he carried out a similar frenzied attack on a boy in a Bletchley Park, slashing his face dozens of times with a cut throat razor.

While serving his 12 year sentence, Clarke “bragged” to other inmates about the hundreds of stitches his victim needed.

“He said ‘I stuck my fingers into the cuts and it made a lovely squishy noise’. I will never forget those words. We all thought he was a complete psychopath,” said one former prisoner.

“We were all baby burglars and car thieves committing crimes for money. But Shane was something else entirely. He was terrifying.”

“When I read in the Citizen that he’s now been jailed for murder I was not at all surprised. He should never have been let out of prison in the first place.”

Last week Oxford Crown Court heard how in May this year Clarke repeatedly rammed the Phillips screwdriver in Joanne’s chest and then left her bleeding on the floor of her Tinkers Bridge bedroom.

He then texted ‘oops’ to his friends and dialled 999, telling the operator: “I’ve just stabbed the missus.”

Clarke, 52, then LAUGHED, and added: “I think she’s dead, mate.”

Joanne, described by friends as “a beautiful soul”, died four days later from irreparable brain damage.

Clarke, from Bletchley, admitted murder and was jailed for life.

When Judge Pringle ordered he serve at least 20 years Clarke gave him the thumbs up. As he was led away from the dock by police he could be heard laughing.

“His attitude towards what he had done was awful... extraordinary,” said Judge Pringle.

Clarke and Joanne had been together for around six years. Their relationship had been “rocky” in the months leading up to the murder because Clarke thought Joanne was having an affair. However, there was no evidence that she was, the court heard.

After the case, Clarke’s former fellow prison inmate recalled: “Clarke had been to a chip shop in Bletchley with this other lad. They left the chippy and walked to a park. Clarke then picked up a broomstick and started beating the lad. He got out a cut throat razor and slashed his face. The boy lived but needed 200 plus stitches. Clarke bragged about it all the time.

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