This is the harrowing moment a ‘manipulative’ woman trapped her ex-boyfriend in a garden after ‘piercing’ his heart with a kitchen knife on Christmas Day.
Kirsty Carless, 33, was jailed for 25 years for plunging a knife into 31-year-old Louis Price’s heart in the early hours of December 25, 2024, in an attack “motivated by anger and jealousy, and fuelled by cocaine and alcohol” after a friend sent her a picture of his dating profile, a trial at Stafford Crown Court heard.
Sentencing her on Thursday in front of a packed public gallery, Judge Mr Justice Choudhury said Carless, of Haling Way in Cannock, Staffordshire, had “destroyed the life of a young man and his family” when she fatally attacked him at his parents’ home in Elm Road, Norton Canes.
On Wednesday, after around a day of deliberation, a jury of seven men and five women found her guilty of murder and possession of an offensive weapon by unanimous verdicts in relation to the fatal stabbing.
She was also found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm by a majority of 11 to one in connection with an incident in November 2024, but was cleared of intentional strangulation in relation to the same incident.
Carless showed no reaction in the dock as Mr Justice Choudhury passed his sentence.
He said the defendant had shown “no remorse” for what she had done and instead falsely claimed she could not remember what had happened.
Driven by jealousy, Carless was caught on CCTV at the scene of the crime where she fatally stabbed Louis Price in a terrifying ’90-second’ assault.
The couple had been involved in a ‘dysfunctional, abusive and highly volatile relationship’, but it had ended by the time of the murder, with Mr Price moving back in with his parents at Elm Road, in Norton Canes, near Cannock.
Carless, 33, left the father-of-six lifeless on the conservatory floor just an hour after discovering his Tinder profile.
Footage released by Staffordshire Police shows Carless sprinting up the driveway after exiting a taxi shortly after 3am last Christmas.
She was then seen gripping the murder weapon as she ‘stalked’ Aston Villa supporter Mr Price around the garden of his parents’ home.
The victim, aged 31, clutched his chest as he was ambushed by his murderer.
The trial heard that Carless had been at The Linford Arms, a Wetherspoon pub in Cannock, drinking double vodka and cokes with a male friend on Christmas Eve.
She slept with him three times at his house before a female friend sent her a screenshot of Mr Price’s Tinder profile around 1.30am the following day.
Carless left the man’s residence and returned home, where she seized a kitchen knife and called Corkys Cars taxi service to transport her to Elm Road.
She had anticipated discovering Mr Price in the company of another woman, the court was told.
The ‘aggressive’ Carless bombarded her victim with 45 phone calls in the hour preceding his murder, which the prosecution described as a ‘barrage’.
Upon reaching the house, Carless instructed the taxi driver to wait outside, assuring him “I’m coming back in a minute”.
The taxi driver later recounted to the police that he heard a ‘very loud and prolonged’ scream from a man mere seconds after Carless entered the property using a key.
Shortly thereafter, Carless emerged from the house appearing ‘anxious and sweating’, urging the taxi driver to take her to her mother’s residence.
She admitted to the stabbing, leading her stepfather to dial 999.
Carless, from Haling Way, Cannock, pleaded not guilty to murder and possession of an offensive weapon in public on December 25 last year.
She also refuted charges of intentional strangulation and assault occasioning actual bodily harm related to a previous attack on Mr Price on November 11, 2024.
The mother had confessed to manslaughter before her trial commenced.
The jury at Stafford Crown Court found her unanimously guilty of murder and carrying an offensive weapon in public on Wednesday, July 30.
She was convicted by a majority verdict of 11 to one for assault occasioning actual bodily harm but was cleared of intentional strangulation.
Carless is now facing a life sentence and is set to be sentenced at Stafford Crown Court on Thursday, July 31.