Man who hacked wife to death in ‘avalanche of serious violence’ jailed for life
The judge told Craig Woodhall: ‘Your conduct may only be characterised as merciless, determined, sustained and savage in the extreme.'
A former soldier who hacked his wife to death in the street with a kukri machete in an ‘unrelenting avalanche of exceptionally serious violence’ has been jailed for life.
Craig Woodhall, 41, inflicted terrible injuries on Victoria Woodhall in front of horrified neighbours and two children outside their home in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, on March 29.
Sheffield Crown Court heard Woodhall stepped away at times before coming back to continue the ‘brutal and relentless attack’ with a Gurkha knife as the 31-year-old NHS worker lay helpless.
The merciless onslaught was also captured on CCTV but the Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC, said the ‘chilling’ footage was too disturbing to be shown in court.
Woodhall pleaded guilty to murder at an earlier hearing and Judge Richardson ordered he serve a minimum term of 18 and a half years on Friday.
The judge said the ‘unrelenting brutality’ of the attack was one of the aggravating factors in the case, along with the fact that it was witnessed by children.
He said: ‘Your conduct may only be characterised as merciless, determined, sustained and savage in the extreme.
‘The deceased was defenceless. The blows were visited with brute force, bringing the knife down repeatedly from a height on to the body of the deceased. Your wife died rapidly from the acute blood loss.
‘It was an unrelenting avalanche of exceptionally serious violence visited upon a defenceless woman.’
Woodhall then told neighbours who tried in vain to help Victoria that ‘she deserved it’ and had been winding him up all day.
The judge added: ‘You plainly intended to kill your wife. Not a shred of mercy was exhibited at the scene. You left her for dead in the street.’
Mrs Woodhall had recently left the family home in to live with another man just as the coronavirus lockdown began.
The judge said she probably left because ‘she had had enough of your controlling and possessive behaviour’.
The couple married in 2013 but the relationship subsequently deteriorated.
On the day of her death Mrs Woodhall returned to the couple’s home but the defendant refused to let her in and he tried to report her to the police for breaking the lockdown rules.
She then began using Facebook videos to tell this to her friends.
The judge said that, when Mrs Woodhall began to film her husband through the window, he ‘reacted with acute violence’.
Mrs Woodhall suffered terrible injuries to her face, neck and head and could not be saved despite the intervention of neighbours.
Woodhall later gave himself up to police, saying ‘I’ve f***** up’ and ‘What have I done?’
The court heard that the defendant had left the Army in 2013 and was training to be a prison officer.
Mrs Woodhall was described in court as a ‘beautiful and talented daughter’ who worked as an operation theatre technician at Rotherham General Hospital.
She landed her ‘dream job’ after obtaining 13 GCSEs, three A-levels and a degree at Sheffield Hallam University, her father, Paul Mason, told the court.
Mr Mason said his daughter was training to work on Covid-19 wards when she was murdered.
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