A judge condemned river killer Vincent Morgan as a “brutal and callous” man as he jailed him for life for the murder of his girlfriend Lisa Welford.
Judge Guy Kearl KC told Morgan, 47, he would have to serve a minimum of 21 years in jail before becoming eligible for parole for murdering the “caring, kind and loved” Malton woman.
It’s believed that Morgan pushed Ms Welford, 49, into the River Derwent in Malton before drowning her late on the evening of 24 April.
Upon sentencing Morgan, Mr Kearl said in Leeds Crown Court: “Lisa Welford was a mother, a daughter and a sister. She had many friends and acquaintances in Malton where she was well known. That is not to say that her life was untroubled.
“However, those who knew her speak of someone who was kind and gentle, caring, thoughtful and loved.”
He told Morgan that her birth mother and adoptive mother described “the hurt and mental stress caused to them; the loss they have suffered, having observed the damage you did to her whilst she was alive, and the effect her death has had on them.
“You had been her partner for many years: you ought to have cared for her, looked after her. However, over the last two decades you have shown yourself to be a person who is violent, particularly when intoxicated through alcohol or drugs.
“Your record indicates that you were prepared to use violence against others, including the police and your partners.
“I’m satisfied on the evidence I have heard that you were regularly and frequently violent towards Lisa Welford over the course of the last few years and during your relationship with her.
“When in drink, you are brutal and callous, unable to control your desire for violence towards your partners.”
Blunt force trauma
Mr Kearl noted that when Morgan killed Ms Welford, he was subject to a domestic-violence-protection order which forbade him having any contact with her.
“It was the third such order granted by the magistrates, who were seeking to protect Lisa Welford from you,” added Mr Kearl.
“You ignored that order, as you had many other court orders in the past.”
The judge told Morgan it was “no mitigation” that Ms Welford had contacted him on the day she was killed.
“That order was to protect someone who was plainly unable to protect herself from you,” added Mr Kearl.
On 24 April, the couple had spent the day together, first drinking in York before catching a bus back to Malton. They arrived at the bus station at about 8.30pm and headed for the riverside in the town centre where they carried on drinking.
Ms Welford, a mother-of-one, was last seen on CCTV walking along the footpath at about 9pm but then she and Morgan disappeared from view of the security cameras at a nearby pet store.
“They remained at the riverside for about two-and-a-half hours, during which time Ms Welford suffered a broken thigh bone.
“Such a fracture would require the use of considerable force, equivalent to that sustained in a vehicle collision,” said Mr Kearl.
He told Morgan: “I reject the notion that the fracture was caused accidentally during the course of a fall. Having heard the evidence, particularly the pathological evidence, and bearing in mind your violent tendencies towards Lisa Welford and others, I am sure you inflicted that injury.
“This fracture was caused by blunt-force trauma from you whilst the two of you were alone on the riverbank and during which she was vulnerable and intoxicated.”
Imminent danger
The last time Ms Welford was seen alive by any witness was when a named woman, who knew the couple, was walking home along the towpath just before 11.30pm after finishing a shift at a local pub.
Despite it being pitch black, she recognised Morgan who was heavily drunk and offered to take him back to Ms Welford’s home.
Morgan then pointed towards Ms Welford “lying prone by the side of the river with a broken leg”. The female witness realised Ms Welford was in imminent danger and told Morgan he had to move her away from the water’s edge.
The woman called her ex-partner after Morgan told her not to call the police and he arrived within three or four minutes to find Morgan in the river “holding the waist and legs of Lisa Welford, causing her head to be underneath the water at a depth of about 1ft.”
The male witness, who went into the river to try to pull Ms Welford out of the water, said he noted that Morgan wasn’t holding her head above the waterline. He felt that, rather than trying to help Ms Welford, Morgan was “hindering” the rescue attempt.
A police officer arrived at the scene and pulled Ms Welford and Morgan out of the river, but Lisa was already dead, having suffered a cardiac arrest and irreparable brain damage due to a lack of oxygen.
Despite the efforts of paramedics, police and the male witness to revive her, she was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.
After being arrested on suspicion of murder, Morgan, of Castlegate, Malton, remained silent during police questioning and failed to give evidence during his trial which ended on Monday when the jury found him guilty as charged.
He had denied murder and two counts of assaulting Ms Welford, causing actual bodily harm, on two previous occasions. The jury also found him guilty of these attacks, in which Morgan pulled out clumps of her hair and knocked one of her teeth out.
Mr Kearl told Morgan: “I’m sure that you pushed her into the river and drowned her. There is only one sentence I can pass: life imprisonment.”
He said that Morgan’s crimes were aggravated by his record for violence, particularly against former partners including one woman who told the court that he had tried to throw her into the same river from a bridge just yards from where Ms Welford was killed.
He said that against the better judgement of the magistrates and despite multiple previous acts of violence against her, Ms Welford had “trusted” Morgan and loved him, although she feared him greatly.
“On this night she was vulnerable as an intoxicated, slight woman alone with you,” added Mr Kearl.
“The domestic context of your offending feeds into the seriousness of this case and this attack took place after you consumed a large amount of alcohol, which was something which you knew, from previous experience with this very woman, would render you very likely to inflict very serious violence upon her.”
The judge said he accepted the defence’s assertion that it wasn’t a premeditated murder despite the fact “that you held her underwater, unable to breathe, for a significant period of time”.
He noted that Morgan had, like Ms Welford, struggled with alcohol and drug addiction for much of his adult life.
Prosecutor Carmel Pearson said that Morgan had 47 previous convictions for 86 offences including violence, burglary, theft, assaulting police officers, fraud and handling stolen goods.
He had served prison sentences in the past and had a previous conviction for ABH against the other former partner he had allegedly tried to throw into the river.
She said that Ms Welford had been “manipulated” by Morgan who had moved into her house in Malton at the time of her death and refused to leave when she asked him to do so, forcing her to move into her mother’s home.
There had been “numerous instances of physical abuse by the defendant” but Ms Welford was unable to break the cycle of violence because she feared Morgan.
“She repeatedly refused to implicate him in the myriad injuries she suffered,” added Ms Pearson.
“Her family, her neighbours, her friends, the police and medical professionals all raised concerns about his behaviour towards her and others witnessed him mistreating her.”
She said that Ms Welford, who was adopted as a baby, was survived by a sister, her adoptive mother and her birth mother.
‘I’ve lost her twice’
Ms Welford’s adoptive mother issued a statement, read out in court by Lisa’s sister Mandy, in which she described her daughter as her “baby”.
“I saw her nearly every day and saw the damage Morgan did to her: the black eyes and broken bones and the excuses Lisa used to cover up the hurt and pain he caused her,” added Mrs Welford.
“We knew it was fruitless trying to change her mind: she loved him, but she was scared of what he would do to her if she upset him.
“It’s had a profound effect on me and my family and my other daughter, Mandy, is heartbroken. The stress of it all has put me in hospital for two weeks in the summer.”
Joy Oxley, Lisa’s birth mother, said she had been forced to give up her daughter for adoption after her birth in 1974, but that Lisa had been adopted “by the most amazing family”.
Ms Oxley and Lisa later met up after she received a letter from Social Services saying her daughter wanted to meet her.
She said she was “overjoyed” to see her daughter who had enjoyed a “wonderful” childhood with her “amazing” adoptive family.
Since then, they had stayed in regular contact, and she would go to Malton to visit her daughter.
“She introduced me to her mum and said how lucky she was to have two mums,” added Ms Oxley.
“On one visit, Vincent Morgan was with her. She introduced him as her friend. He said he would look after her. I had no idea of his past record in beating women. I just wish she had told me.”
Ms Oxley added: “I’ve lost her twice, now this time forever at the hands of him on that fateful night of 24 April.”
Morgan was given a life sentence and told he must serve at least 21 years in prison, less the 120 days he had spent on remand, before becoming eligible for parole. If the Parole Board decide to release him at that stage, he will spend the rest of his life on prison licence.