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Taxi driver Martin Bell gets life sentence for Gemma Simpson murder Taxi driver Martin Bell gets life sentence for Gemma Simpson murder
(35 minutes later)
A taxi driver who admitted killing a woman in a “frenzied” attack with a hammer and a knife before sawing her legs off and burying her at a beauty spot has been told he must serve a minimum of 12 years in prison. A taxi driver who admitted killing a woman in a frenzied attack with a hammer and a knife before sawing her legs off and burying her at a beauty spot has been told he must serve a minimum of 12 years in prison.
Martin Bell, 45, said God had told him to kill 23-year-old Gemma Simpson when she was at his flat in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, 14 years ago in May 2000. Martin Bell, 45, said God had told him to kill 23-year-old Gemma Simpson when she was at his flat in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, in May 2000.
Bell pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility when he appeared at Leeds crown court earlier this week.Bell pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility when he appeared at Leeds crown court earlier this week.
Judge Peter Collier QC on Friday gave Bell a life sentence and ordered him to serve a minimum of 12 years. Judge Peter Collier QC sentenced bell to life in prison on Friday and ordered him to serve a minimum of 12 years.
Collier said: “The killing of Gemma Simpson was brutal. Your treatment of her body after death was dreadful. “The killing of Gemma Simpson was brutal,” Collier said. “Your treatment of her body after death was dreadful. But your culpability was considerably diminished by your mental illness.”
“But your culpability was considerably diminished by your mental illness.” A psychiatric report carried out after Bell’s arrest diagnosed his illness as schizophrenia.
Earlier this week the judge heard how Bell, who handed himself into police earlier this year, said he gave Simpson the opportunity to get away but killed her after he thought she had threatened his children.
Simon Myerson QC, prosecuting, told the court Bell launched a frenzied attack in which he repeatedly struck Simpson with a hammer and then stabbed her in the back and neck an “uncountable” number of times with a kitchen knife.
Bell filled a bath with water and left Simpson in it for four days with her hands tied behind her back because he was “frightened she would come back to life”.
Myerson said Bell closed the shower curtain so he did not have to see the body and repainted his flat in a lilac colour to cover the blood stains.
He hired a car but found he could not fit Simpson’s body in the boot, so he sawed off the bottom of her legs.
Bell, who has been diagnosed with a psychotic illness, told police he did this “as fast as I could so I wasn’t sick”.
He wrapped Simpson’s body in a sleeping bag and secured it with chains and a padlock “so she couldn’t get out”. He then drove to Brimham Rocks, near Harrogate, where he dug a hole with a shovel and buried her body.
Myerson told the court that Bell, who was 30 at the time of the attack, had known Simpson for about five years. On the day of her death, the pair met at Leeds railway station before going back to Bell’s flat in Harrogate.
Bell was questioned by police after Simpson was reported missing. He said she had called him to ask if she could stay with him but he had not seen her that day.
In July this year, Bell rang a former girlfriend and told her he had killed someone 14 years ago. He then handed himself in at Scarborough police station.
During his interviews, Bell took police to Brimham Rocks and showed them where he had buried Simpson, and her remains were recovered. He said he had visited the site four or fives times since Simpson’s death.
Bell told police he had considered confessing in the past but his mother was still alive and he was concerned about losing his freedom.
Paul Greaney QC, defending, told the court the defendant heard voices telling him to do things and had “developed complex delusional beliefs” which resulted in him moving around the country because he believed a group of men were trying to kill him.
He had been sectioned in a mental hospital for nine months in August 1999 and was released about six weeks before he killed Simpson.
Greaney said the doctor who discharged Bell accepted that the delusions had not disappeared at that stage.