Jealous husband in death threats
A jealous husband who threatened to go on a Raoul Moat-style killing spree mistakenly believing his partner was seeing a policeman has lost his appeal against an indefinite jail sentence.
Richard Cheshire, aged 49, suffered from "morbid jealousy" and was compared to Shakespeare's tragic anti-hero, Othello, who killed the woman he loved, wrongly thinking she had been unfaithful.
He was jailed indefinitely for public protection for telling his then partner he would "kill her and the man she was in a relationship with" after he "decided she was in a relationship with a policeman" in July last year, London's Criminal Appeal Court heard.
Cheshire, of Bowen Square, Daventry, had a string of previous convictions for threats against women and was handed the sentence at Leicester Crown Court in March 2009, after pleading guilty to breaching a restraining order and making threats to kill.
Lord Justice Richards, sitting with Mr Justice Collins and Mr Justice Coulson, rejected his bid to get the open-ended sentence quashed.
His lawyers argued that, despite his previous convictions and telling his former partner she was "a dead woman walking" after "spying or stalking her", he should not have been categorised as a dangerous offender.
Refusing permission to appeal, Mr Justice Coulson said: "We take the view the mitigation is non-existent. He suffered from morbid jealousy, sometimes known as Othello syndrome for obvious reasons.
Domestic violence is about control and bullying. He has already been on a domestic violence programme and it didn't stop what he did. The statutory requirements for dangerousness were clearly established."
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