Killer: A friend of the victim’s had warned Molly to stay away from accused Joshua Stimpson before the attack, a court heard
A jealous boyfriend who “exploded with rage” and savagely attacked his ex-girlfriend in a stabbing and slashing frenzy, stabbing her 75 times as she sat in her car in what the sentencing judge described as an “act of wickedness” has been jailed for life.
Ironically, a friend had warned the victim to stay away from her killer, minutes before he struck last June in Kent, UK
Playing the role of the psychopath to the hilt, Joshua Stimpson butchered Molly McLaren, 23, just minutes after she was warned by a pal to be careful of the “freak”.
On the day of Molly’s death, Stimpson lay in wait in his car as she left the gym before slowly driving to her car “waiting for the moment that he has carefully considered to kill her”.
Once she was in the driver’s seat, he abandoned his vehicle, yanked open her door and launched a violent flurry of knife blows.
Molly tried to fight him off, screaming and beeping her horn, but she died within minutes.
Stimpson was arrested at the scene – his white vest top and blue shorts heavily bloodstained and his hands injured.
Molly McLaren died after being at the end of a frenzied knife and pickax attack by a ex, last year
McLaren was stabbed and slashed at least 75 times and her throat was completely severed as the fiend “exploded with rage” in Chatham, Kent on June 29 last year.
She had become concerned about Stimpson, 26, who she met on Tinder, after they split and sent a final message to a pal moments before she died saying she felt she was living in trepidation of her ex. She was reportedly said she ‘was always looking over her shoulder’. Stimpson had been warned twice to stay away from Molly by police and was last spoken to by cops on June 27 last year – two days before her death.
He has now been jailed for life with a minimum of 26 years after jurors took less than three hours to unanimously find him guilty of murder at Maidstone Crown Court today.
Heart broken parents Doug McLaren and Joanne McLaren arrive for senetencing
Stimpson was today received a life term with a minimum of 26 years
The victim’s family wept in the public gallery and shouted out “yes” as Stimpson, who had denied murder but admitted manslaughter with diminished responsibility, was convicted.
Handing down the sentence, Judge Adele Williams said: “This was an act of wickedness. You took away Molly’s life, quite deliberately in the most vicious fashion,” she added.
“You slit her throat while repeatedly stabbing her. You did this because she had brought the relationship with you to an end about 12 days before this killing.
“You followed her to the gym that morning. You spent time stalking her in the gym and then you lay in wait for her in the car park, waiting until she got into her car so that she was trapped when you got in and launched your attack.
“You intended to kill her. You were determined to punish her for finishing the relationship with you. You were seeking revenge.
“This was all committed in public. This was a premeditated killing, there was planning.”
Molly had broken up with Stimpson 12 days before he killed her
Describing Molly as beautiful and intelligent, Judge Williams continued:
“She is mourned by a large number of people. Her family’s grief and anguish is raw and apparent for everyone to see.
“Their loss and grief is immeasurable and nothing that I can say nor any sentence I can pass can deal with that grief and loss.”
During the trial, jurors were shown chilling footage of Stimpson working out in the gym next to Molly before he launched into his stabbing frenzy.
The killer can be seen walking into the same exercise room as Molly clutching a bag containing a knife, a box cutter and a pickax he used in the assault.
The court was shown CCTV footage of Joshua Stimpson putting his workout mat next to Molly’s in the gym
Minutes later he leaves carrying his gym bag, which the court was told contained knives and a pickaxe
He is then seen holding a gym bag and walking out into the Chatham Dockside Outlet car park where Molly was killed after she asked him: “Are you following me now?”.
She had also sent a text to her mum, Joanne, at 10.45am saying “Mum he’s turned up at the gym and come next to me”.
The blood-soaked paring knife that was allegedly seized by police following Miss McLaren’s death
A green-handled pickax recovered by police from Stimpson at the crime scene, that was shown to the jury during the trial
The box cutter Stimpson brought to the attack which was introduced in evidence
A frightened Mclaren had also exchanged 20 messages with her friend Amy Lee in the minutes leading up to her death about Stimpson being at her gym.
As Molly frantically beeped the horn and screamed for help, Amy had continued to message unaware she was dying in a bloodbath.
Amy had said: “Any indication you could have been there at all. Last night, now today. Starting to look dodgy.
“He has no sense of what is normal. He is a freak. Just stay away from him.”
Joshua Stimpson pictured on store surveillance allegedly purchasing a knife 
Molly McLaren’s Citroen C2 at the scene of the murder in the car park of the Dockside retail outlet in Chatham
Footage shown to the jury from inside a police car at the crime scene, shows Stimpson wearing a bloody vest
The court heard Molly McLaren [right],and Stimpson [left] started dating in November 2016 after meeting through Tinder but she dumped him months later
Police had twice interviewed the killer [left], about his stalking and harassment of victim, Molly McLaren [right]
The court heard that on the day of Molly’s death she messaged friends saying she felt like she was having to look over her shoulder
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