Father tells of moment he found his daughter, 47, killed by toyboy
EXCLUSIVE: Father tells of horrific moment he found his daughter, 47, lying in a pool of blood in her home after she was stabbed to death by the toyboy lover, 26, she had broken up with over concerns about the age gap
- Clair Tinkley, 47, was murdered by her boyfriend John Jessop, 26, at home
- She was slashed 16 times while utterly defenceless in a pool of her own blood
- Clair’s father Graham found her body when he popped round to see his daughter
- Jessop murdered her after she chose to ‘cool off’ the fling due to their age gap
When Graham Tinkley popped round to see his daughter Clair at the cottage she had rented just a few miles from the family home he was initially annoyed with her.
He had learned that the two horses she kept hadn’t been mucked out, fed and watered and he was cross with her – thinking that he would have to do it for her as she had thoughtlessly gone out and left them.
So he let himself into the cottage with the key that she had given him for just this kind of eventuality, only to open the door to discover a bloodbath with his beloved Clair mutilated at its centre.
Mother-of-three Clair, 47, had been viciously murdered by her sometime younger boyfriend John Jessop, slashed and stabbed 16 times while utterly defenceless.
Graham Tinkley, 75, and his wife Sandra, 72, are parents of 47-year-old Clair Tinkley who was murdered by her sometime younger boyfriend John Jessop
Clair Tinkley, pictured, was slashed and stabbed 16 times while utterly defenceless by her ex boyfriend John Jessop
Jessop, 26, had left her bleeding to death in her night-dress on the lounge floor, locking her inside her new rented cottage in a picturesque village, while he went to the pub.
As Jessop, 26, was jailed for life this week, Mr Tinkley, 75, relived the horrifying scene he discovered when he stepped into Clair’s home in Colston Basset, Nottinghamshire, on February 25 last year.
And, to accompany the harrowing interview, Mr Tinkley and his wife Sandra allowed MailOnline exclusive access to the family photo album showing Clair at various stages of her life in a tribute to their loving daughter.
Mr Tinkley explained how he had stumbled on the murder scene: ‘I was the one who found her. I had gone round there, and at first I was annoyed with her for letting people down because she hadn’t done the horses, and I thought to myself “Bloody Hell Clair what have you done”?
John Jessop, 26, left Ms Tinkley bleeding to death in her night-dress on the lounge floor, locking her inside her new rented cottage in a village while he went to the pub
‘She had two horses she shared with a friend and she hadn’t been to look after them when it was her turn.
‘Her friend had got in touch about it via our grandson Daniel Abelwhite, and he had been trying to contact his mum but coudn’t get through to her on the phone.
‘So I thought I’d pop up, I’ve got a key. She only lived three miles away, in the next village. She had only been there for six weeks and I’d been doing some odd jobs and bits and pieces for her. I just wanted to make sure she was alright.
‘I went up, the door was locked but I opened it with my key and went into the front room and fell over a chair which I believe was the chair he was using to beat her. There was blood all over it and up the door.
‘Then I saw her lying there by the fireplace. There was blood all over the place. There had been blood shooting out of her neck where he had stabbed her. She was wearing her night-dress. She was lifeless on the floor and there a blood all over her face, her hair.’
Ms Tinkley’s father, who found her body, said: ‘Finding her like that haunts me every night. I lie in bed seeing her blood-soaked body and hearing the screams of her pleading for life’
Jessop was described as ‘bewildered’ when Clair chose to ‘cool off’ the couple’s fling after admitting to concerns over their age difference. Pictured: Clair, right, with friends
Mr Tinkley, 75, went on: ‘I flipped out. I had a panic attack. At first I couldn’t remember how to dial 999 or where she lived. But I got myself together.
‘I called up and said my daughter is lying on the floor with blood all over her and that I think she is dead.
‘They talked me through what to do and told me to check her breathing.
‘She was lying on her side. I tried to roll her over but her arm was all stiff and bent, rig
He said: ‘I knew she was gone but I had to have a go, just in case.
‘They told me to do mouth to mouth resuscitation. I knew she was gone but I had to have a go just in case. I did all I could do and I had to force her mouth open, it was solid and frozen, there was blood all over and it was shooting into my mouth as I was doing CPR.
Clair’s father said: ‘I never imagined finding my beautiful, kind, loving daughter dead, having been murdered’
Clair’s parents want to remember their beautiful and popular daughter who ‘everyone in the village knew because of her dog walking’
‘I told the paramedics on the phone she was not breathing. I knew in my head that she was dead.
‘The emergency team was brilliant, the ambulance was there in less than 10 minutes, and the rest is history.’
Mr Tinkley, a retired engineer for Nottingham-based company Pork Farms, continued: ‘She had been lying there for nearly a day. He killed her some time around 10pm on the Friday night and it was 6.30pm the next day when I found her body.
‘She had suffered a lot. He went there to murder her, he biked over to her home, he killed her, threw her phone in a river and locked her up in her home dying.
‘He is a monster who deserves never to walk free again but no doubt he will after we’ve gone. Sadly we didn’t get justice for Clair.
‘I never imagined finding my beautiful, kind, loving daughter dead, having been murdered.’
Mr Tinkey and his wife Sandra, 72, a former sewing machinist, invited the MailOnline into their cosy home in Cropwell Bishop, Nottinghamshire, to share treasured memories and photos of their daughter, a dog walker, whilst reliving the absolute horror.
The court heard that Clair was attacked at around 10.09pm with her screams being picked up on a neighbour’s CCTV system
They told how the shocking crime had devastated their close knit family – their younger daughter, Kay, a dog groomer, 42; divorcee Clair’s three sons Ross, 17, Sam, 21, and Dan, 28, and her maternal grandma, aged nearly 91.
The tragic victim’s dad said: ‘Finding her like that haunts me every night. I lie in bed seeing her blood-soaked body and hearing the screams of her pleading for life which were played to the court. I will never forget or get over it.
‘To this day I wake up in the night with panic attacks. I see Clair in my dreams.
‘I see blood gushing from her throat trying to resuscitate her dead body. I keep thinking about how Clair would have felt during the last moments alive. It will forever haunt me.
‘There is no end to our suffering, we cannot move on.’
The couple, together for 50 years, had never met factory worker Jessop, 26, but were aware their daughter had started casually seeing him.
Mrs Tinkley explained: ‘We didn’t know anything about him but we knew he existed. Clair had shown us a picture of him on her phone.
‘She had come out of an acrimonious marriage and had moved away to start a new life. She had met him on a dating website, she showed us a picture of a few different people and he was one of them.
‘I did warn her: ‘Be careful who you are meeting. Don’t trust anybody on social media. You don’t know who you are talking to.’
Clair’s father said: ‘There is no end to our suffering, we cannot move on’
Her husband added: ‘Clair was a bit naive, she had lived on a farm for many years before moving into her cottage. She was crazy on animals.
‘She had the best life that anyone would have liked. She had owned a 450-acre farm with her former husband and she was close to us and her three boys.’
Her mum told how she sensed conscientious Clair had been taken ill or suffered a minor accident when she failed to tend her horses in a nearby field, She said: ‘I thought she had probably falling downstairs or was ill in bed with Covid, never in my wildest dreams did I think she had been murdered.’
When she found out she admitted: ‘It was a long night. Graham had been to her cottage and found her and called me to say get Kay, our younger daughter, round.
‘He said ‘It’s bad’ and I thought she’s broken a leg, she’s really ill.
‘And then I found out my daughter was dead and had been killed by a man who had only been in her life for a matter of months.’
Clair’s parents and her three sons were at Nottingham Crown Court this week to see Jessop jailed. Her ex-husband farmer Steven Ablewhite, whom she has married at age 19, was not present.
Her father had given a powerful and heartfelt victim impact statement – reading it himself and glaring at his daughter’s killer as he did, only to be met once by a fleeting gaze from the dock.
Mr Tinkley said: ‘The Judge felt I shouldn’t read it myself but I had to do it for Clair and I held back the tears.
‘He showed no remorse. It is absolutely disgusting. There is no justice, he didn’t get long enough. He should be locked away for the rest of his life. He should never walk the streets again
‘At first he had pleaded not guilty to murder but then changed his plea because of the overwhelming evidence against him. Video evidence [from a neighbour’s CCTV] was played to the court and you could hear her screams where he was beating and stabbing her.
‘She has 16 stab wounds. We hadn’t realised it was this many, we thought it was one to the throat. We were all in tears.’
His wife added: ‘The justice system is all wrong. We are not happy with the sentence.
‘If Clair was killed in an accident or had died through illness it would be easier to accept, but we cannot accept murder.
‘He’s being kept at taxpayers’ expense. I hope someone attacks him inside.’
Her husband sighed: ‘We won’t be here when he comes out but we’d gladly leave all our money to a hit man.’
The court heard that Clair was attacked at around 10.09pm with her screams being picked up on a neighbour’s CCTV system.
Her scorned toy boy lover had sliced her throat after he was unable to accept her ending their relationship and was then was sipping a pint in the pub with friends while she bled to death in her home.
She suffered extensive knife wounds to the neck and chest as a series of blunt force and defensive injuries during the vicious attack.
Jessop was described as ‘bewildered’ when Clair chose to ‘cool off’ the couple’s fling after admitting to concerns over their age difference – before cycling to her £450,000 cottage and killing her.
The killer, a star at his local lawn tennis club in Newark, Nottinghamshire, who met his lover on Facebook Dating website, later became the subject of a manhunt and was arrested 11 days following the murder.
He showed no emotion in the dock as he was jailed for life.
Mr Tinkley continued: ‘I wanted to should out ‘Why, why, why John Jessop?. He looked up once but he showed no remorse.
‘We don’t know anything ability him apart from he was adopted and worked night shifts at a factory where he was arrested, and was having driving lessons. We’ve never had any contact from his family, no one has said sorry.’
Mr Tinkley said: ‘If it wasn’t for Clair’s neighbour who had a decent security system and picked up crucial CCTV from his house and flew back from holiday in France to help police he could have still been out there.’
Amidst the continuing heartache, Clair’s parents wanted to remember their beautiful and popular daughter who ‘everyone in the village knew because of her dog walking.’
Both had seen her on the day before she had died.
Her mum, fondly recalled: ‘I’d gone shopping into town with Clair, into Nottingham, and we’d had a bacon cob and a cappuccino. It was a fun day.
‘Later she went off dog walking, she had loads of dogs and used to get £10 an hour which was going towards her new cottage.
‘On her walk she dropped by me and her dad’s house for a quick coffee, and that was the last time we saw her alive.
‘We can’t believe she’s gone, it’s unreal. Our lives have been shattered.
’The thought of her lying all alone for hours is unbearable.’
She keeps asking: ‘How can one person cause so much heartache and why?’
Choking back tears she said: ‘Jessop took my daughter from me but he will never be able to take my memories of my beautiful daughter. ‘
Clair has been buried at her favourite spot, a tiny village in Owthorpe, Nottinghamshire, which she used to frequently visit.
Her dad said: ‘Her funeral was lovely, she was a country girl and we laid her to rest in a wicker coffin and there were two black horses pulling a carriage. There were 400 people and they were out lining the streets too.’
Her beloved two dogs, a border collie called Grace and a cocker spaniel were in attendance.
Her mother told how they shared an easy, fun loving relationship and she and her husband were often ‘going on for hours about her high sculpted eyebrows and her long blonde hair which we were always telling her to cut!
‘She was lovely, strong-minded, but fun and she loved her animals.’
The couple have had bereavement counselling sessions to help them cope with their sudden loss but Mr Tinkley said: ‘We didn’t find them very helpful – they don’t help at all!
‘It’s been tough and our younger daughter has found the strain too much and has collapsed a couple of times, and Clair’s boys are overwhelmed with sadness, as are we.’
Mrs Tinkley revealed that she was now sadly battling cancer saying: ‘We’ve had an awful past year.
‘I’ve been diagnosed with lung cancer and have already had 20 per cent of one lung taken away and I’ve had two rounds of chemotherapy.’
She stoically manages a light-hearted moment, saying: ‘I’ve still got all my hair!’ But I’m not sleeping.’
Her husband thinks her disease may have been triggered by the shock of losing their daughter so brutally.
He said how difficult they find it coping and when people ask how he is doing and if he is alright, he seethes: ‘No I’m bloody not alright, my daughter has been murdered! We should have gone first.
‘I try to be strong but after seeing what I saw and hearing her screams played in court I’m not.
‘Her ex-husband phoned to say he was sorry but he didn’t come to court and we have nothing to do with him, only our three grandchildren.’
He added: ‘I often find Sandra crying on her own when I walk into the room.
Mr Tinkley told how his daughter had been for a meal with her landlord and next-door neighbour on the night she met her fate.
He said: ‘She had been out and after getting ready for bed would have probably let the dogs out. Jessop hadn’t been with her, he turned up unexpectedly and intent on murdering her.’
He told how their lives had been changed forever, saying: ‘We sit around the house all day, just hanging about. We’re no longer working and we used to have hobbies and interests but we don’t bother, we have no heart to do anything now.’
Following her death Clair’s middle son took and cared for her dog Grace.
Her dad recalled: ‘One day Sam lost her, she had run off, and he went running around the villages looking for her.
‘He finally found her at Clair’s grave. That’s unreal, unbelievable. The dog had been to the funeral. And now she was with Clair again by her graveside.
‘A few weeks later she died.’
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