'Controlling' estranged husband choked wife to death as children slept

‘Controlling’ estranged husband of mother-of-four, 27, is jailed for 25 years for her murder after he disfigured her face with knife and choked her to death as their children slept in next room

• Russell Marsh, 29, murdered Jade Ward, 27, cutting up her face and choking her 
• He left her body on her bed before driving his children to his parents’ house 
• Jade left him after no longer loving him and had said Marsh made her ‘skin crawl’ 
• Marsh who claimed the death was accidental was jailed for 25 years minimum

A ‘controlling’ estranged husband of a mother-of-four has been jailed for 25 years for her murder after he disfigured her face with a knife and choked her to death as their children slept in next room. 

Russell Marsh, 29, attempted to cover his tracks by telling barefaced lies after committing the ‘brutal and remarkably cruel’ murder of his 27-year-old wife Jade Ward.

He initially claimed the death was accidental, after he said Ms Ward asked him to choke her during sex, before he later told the jury she had mutilated herself and then taunted him. 

The judge Rhys Rowlands told Mold Crown Court his case was nothing but ‘falsehoods and slurs’. 

Marsh had been told to leave the family home in North Wales, after Ms Ward summoned up the courage to tell him she no longer wanted him in her life in August 2021.  

And days later, he returned home uninvited as their four sons slept to murder his wife who had said Marsh made her ‘skin crawl’. 

He drove the children to his parents’ home near Chester and later handed himself in to police. 

Officers found Ms Ward’s body slashed, stabbed and strangled and dumped under a pile of clothes in a room which was sealed shut with a dressing gown cord. 

Officers found Jade Ward’s (pictured) body dumped under a pile of clothes in a room sealed shut with a dressing gown cord and slashed, stabbed and strangled

Russell Marsh, 29, savagely assaulted Jade Ward, both pictured, 27, disfiguring her face with a knife and then choking her to death

Judge Rhys Rowlands told Mold Crown Court how Shotton local Ms Ward had ‘summoned the courage’ to end her long-term relationship with Marsh ‘for good’ last summer.

The mother-of-four ‘understandably’ had no interest in carrying on with an ‘unhappy marriage’.

Marsh, however, was not prepared to accept this as the end of the line for the couple. 

The ‘paranoid’ and ‘controlling’ power plant worker believed this split wouldn’t last like the others that had been before.

Throughout the proceedings, the court heard that Marsh would call and text Ms Ward constantly when they were apart. 

Since their marriage, he had been ‘trying to mould her’ into the person he believed she ought be.

He had ‘jokingly’ made claims that if he could not have her then nobody could. 

‘Tragically, it transpired to be the truth,’ said Judge Rowlands. 

Judge Rowlands said that Marsh, ‘fuelled by a sense of being wronged’, went to Chevrons Road on August 26. He would then carry out the attack that cost Ms Ward her life.

He said: ‘Jade was happy and hopeful for the future that night. In the early hours, you went over and entered using the key you still had.

‘You sneaked upstairs where the victim was, not before going and telling your son that their mum had kissed another man. 

‘You had armed yourself with a knife from the kitchen before going upstairs.

‘You wanted to make Jade suffer. She would have woken in the dark to find you in her bedroom and thereafter subjected to a horrific ordeal.’

Judge Rowlands said that the mum-of-four would have endured an ‘excruciating’ amount of pain in what is no doubt ‘an awful way for a young woman to lose her life’. It was a ‘sustained attack’ that, were she to have survived, Ms Ward would have been scarred for life.

Moments before Ms Ward’s (pictured) lifeless body was discovered, her murderer was filmed by officers at a police station telling them he had ‘done something horrible’

Pictured: Police on Chevrons Road in Shotton, Flintshire, where Jade Ward, 27, was found dead at her home on 26 August 2021 

Judge Rowlands said that the mum-of-four would have endured an ‘excruciating’ amount of pain in what is no doubt ‘an awful way for a young woman to lose her life’. It was a ‘sustained attack’ that, were she to have survived, Ms Ward would have been scarred for life. Pictured: Balloon release in memory of Jade Ward, 27

He continued: ‘It was a cowardly and brutal assault against a defenceless woman against a much larger man she was desperately trying to get away from. 

‘Any unexpected death is a tragedy, here of course you took that life in a calculated and cruel way.’

The judge said that, during the trial, with the exception of Marsh, everyone in court spoke ‘highly’ of Ms Ward as a mother who ‘lived for her four sons’ whilst enjoying a social life and being popular in the community.

Ms Ward ‘should have had most of her life ahead of her’, the judge said to Marsh, ‘but you took that from her’.

The judge said there was ‘no credible evidence’ put forward that, despite Marsh’s suspicions, Ms Ward had been unfaithful to him.

The judge added: ‘It is poignant that her last contact with someone other than yourself was a short while earlier that night with another man whom she hoped would be kind to her and would allow her to be herself.’ 

Prosecutor Michael Jones QC earlier described how Marsh was working an overnight shift for his employer Bio Energy in Ellesmere Port on the night 27-year-old Ms Ward was killed.

He said the defendant had told his supervisor that he had to leave several hours into his shift and claimed his brother had taken an overdose and needed to go to hospital.

The prosecutor said this was ‘completely untrue’ and instead Marsh was tracked by CCTV, ANPR cameras, and phone masts heading into north Wales and arriving at the former family home in Shotton.

He said close friends and family members heard Ms Ward saying that this time the separation was ‘for good’.

Ms Ward had allegedly shared a kiss with another man at a party and was ‘moving on’ with her life. 

‘Within a week of this she was dead,’ said Mr Jones.

Russell Marsh, right, a ‘possessive’ husband has been jailed for a minimum of 25 years after being found guilty of murdering his wife Jade, left, a week after she broke up with him

Marsh said her injuries were the result of consensual sadomasochistic sexual activity, instigated at her request.

But Mr Jones said this was ‘a desperate attempt by an arrogant, manipulative and controlling’ man to explain her ‘dreadful’ injuries and death.  

A pathology report detailed how she suffered multiple wounds ‘across her body’, including her face and arms, while grip marks left her bruised and there was evidence of ‘defensive’ wounds sustained around the hands showing she had ‘made efforts to fight off’ her attacker. 

Her final cause of death was asphyxiation, he said. 

Moments before Ms Ward’s lifeless body was discovered, Marsh was filmed by officers at a police station telling them he had ‘done something horrible’. 

The court heard he rocked back and forth in his chair and repeatedly apologised as police forced entry to the property and found Ms Ward in the location Marsh indicated with blood-stained pyjamas and covered with a pile of clothing.

Marsh, crying, had told officers they would find his wife, a Co-op worker, in the Chevrons Road bedroom and said: ‘I never did mean to hurt her.’

The couple met in their teens and later married, but Marsh seemed frightened of losing his wife. 

She no longer loved him, and he made her ‘skin crawl,’ the jury was told.

On Monday, April 4, Marsh went into the witness box and gave evidence. While being questioned by his barrister Christopher Terhani QC the defendant accepted he killed Ms Ward by way of asphyxiation and had no lawful reason for doing so.

However he denied having any intent to kill or cause Ms Ward serious harm.

Father-of-five Marsh, who left school at 16 with two GCSEs in science and religious studies, confirmed there was a seven-month period in 2017 when he was signed off from work – at a different company – due to ill mental health caused by ‘pressure and anxiety’. He was medicated during this period.

The defendant also told the court he was roughly £30,000 in debt in 2019 following house renovations and paying for the wedding between himself and Ms Ward. The couple were together on and off for just over nine years in all.

At the time of the split Marsh was accused of bruising Ms Ward’s wrists. He said he had ‘never been violent’ with Ms Ward (pictured)

Marsh said they had ‘rocky times’ throughout – more so towards the tail end of the relationship. 

He said the pair were ‘tired’ and ‘drained’ and claimed they had ‘next to nothing’ when it came to a physical relationship.

In summer 2019, not long after their wedding, the couple had split up for ‘a variety of reasons’, the court heard, but they later reconciled within days.

At the time of the split Marsh was accused of bruising Ms Ward’s wrists. He said he had ‘never been violent’ with Ms Ward. 

Following today’s sentencing, Jade’s family paid tribute to her with the following statement: ‘Jade was a kind and caring daughter who will be deeply missed by everyone.

‘Jade was the sunshine in our lives, she was the glue that held us all together. She was also a devoted mum who would do anything for her children, a much-loved friend, daughter, sister, aunty, niece and granddaughter.

‘Jade’s whole life was ahead of her and her death has left a void in all our lives.

‘The family are very thankful to all of Jade’s friends and colleagues for their support, and to North Wales Police for the investigation that has led to today’s conviction.

‘We ask that our privacy is respected and that as a family we can quietly grieve and continue to come to terms with this heartbreaking loss.’

Detective Inspector Myfanwy Kirkwood, the deputy Senior Investigating Officer, said: ‘For Jade’s young life to be cut so cruelly short in such tragic circumstances is beyond comprehension.

‘Jade was much loved by her family and friends and I recognise that no words or verdict will ever bring back this young woman, but I hope today’s outcome will bring a small sense of peace to Jade’s family.

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