Life for 'MI5 fantasist' killer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/suffolk/6387163.stm

Version 0 of 1.

An insurance worker who fantasised about working for MI5 has been jailed for life for murdering his 18-year-old girlfriend in their Suffolk home.

Part-time photographer Stuart Adcock, 34, left model Rebecca Rice, 18, to die after knifing her 10 times at the flat they shared in Pettistree, Suffolk.

Norwich Crown Court heard Adcock killed Miss Rice in August 2006 after she had said she was leaving him.

Adcock must serve a minimum of 16 years before being eligible for parole.

Prosecutor Karim Khalil said Adcock had been violent towards other girlfriends.

"Stuart Adcock has shown over a number of years that he could be charming towards women when he is courting them," said Mr Khalil.

"But once they become his girlfriend he is inclined to become possessive, jealous and domineering.

The 18-year-old's body was found in the kitchen of her flat

"In early 2006 Rebecca Rice became his last girlfriend. The pattern I have just described repeated itself."

Mr Khalil said Miss Rice had become unhappy with Adcock and planned to return to her parents' home nearby.

He added: "She planned to move back home with her parents. Adcock found out about that, whereupon he decided she would not be allowed to go.

"In a frenzied attack, he knifed her many times in the kitchen of their flat and left her to bleed to death."

MI5 claim

Mr Khalil said Adcock, who admitted the murder at an earlier hearing, was an insurance worker who had been employed by a number of companies, including Zurich and Norwich Union.

"But he had told people that he worked for MI5 and was significantly involved in the aftermath of the London bombings in July 2005.

"He said he had been in the Underground and seen all the dead bodies and he had become depressed after that."

Adcock had told another woman he was employed "by the government in confidential work", added Mr Khalil.

'Friendly and bubbly'

Miss Rice was a talented athlete and horse rider who had done well at school and worked as a model, said Mr Khalil.

Friends described her as a "lovely girl "with a "friendly and bubbly personality".

Graham Parkins, QC for Adcock, said his client had been suffering from depression since the end of 2004.

He said Adcock had no "history of real violence" and added: "We may never ever know how it started, what caused him to react or act in the way that he did. It is bizarre in the extreme."