SADLY Irene Paterson could run, but she couldn’t hide and when her ex-husband eventually came calling, he stabbed the kind and gentle 73-year-old to death with a filleting knife he found in her kitchen. 

It was hardly a crime of passion on the spur of the moment, the couple had been divorced for 32 years. But Duncan Paterson, a former trawler chef, had always refused to accept the situation and on Tuesday, October 20, 1997, he travelled 160 miles, from his home in the pretty fishing port of Brixham in Devon to the south Worcestershire village of Badsey, near Evesham, with murder in mind.

The day after his visit, Irene’s bloodied body was discovered by neighbours lying in her back garden, her pet spaniel Kim standing guard. A post mortem found she had died almost instantly from the trauma of two stab wounds, one four inches deep and the other six inches, which had severed major blood vessels.

It didn’t take long for police to find the former husband, for after a night sleeping rough behind the Talbot pub in Evesham, he turned up at the town’s Community Hospital next morning suffering from  hypothermia.

Officers were called and, when arrested, Paterson, who was 77, replied: “If you’ve got a gun shoot me. Tell me it can’t be true. That’s my life finished.”

A note was found in his  pocket which read: “I killed my dear ex-wife. She played a dirty game.”

Nevertheless, when he appeared before Worcester Crown Court in November, 1999, he denied murder and claimed police had planted evidence.

The court was told Mrs Paterson had eventually secured a divorce from her husband in 1965. Although the marriage produced two children, it was marred by Duncan Paterson’s bullying and domineering behaviour and even after the split he continued to contact Irene.

Their daughter Helen was to say: “He never left her alone. He wanted to totally control her. I think he purposely left some of his possessions with her so he could use them as an excuse to visit.” Things eventually got so bad, Irene moved up from Devon to live near members of her family in Worcestershire.

Helen added: “Although I don’t think he knew where she had gone at first, he was crafty enough to find out.” And find out he did, for within a fairly short time, Duncan Paterson was seen strolling through the village of Badsey far from his Brixham home “talking merrily” to those he met.

On September 14, 1997 he turned up on Irene’s doorstep while their daughter and son-in-law were there, banging on the door and yelling: “Let me in you bitch. You tart.” Police were called and he was arrested for breach of the peace, but later released.

On the day of the murder, Mrs Paterson, who was seeking an injunction to stop the visits, again rang the police when Paterson arrived at 8.15am. He left before officers arrived, but they found him in the area and warned him off.

Unfortunately it didn’t work and when Irene went into Evesham later in the day she bumped into him. The pair apparently shopped together for a while and went to a pub for a sandwich. Irene returned home alone and in the evening took her dog for a walk. It was the last time she was seen alive.

Peterson told the police he did go to his former wife’s house that evening but discovered her already dead. Asked why he did not call the police, he said: “I panicked because they had warned me in the morning. The fact is they were going to think I did it. Everyone will think it. I told Irene I would never hurt her. All I wanted to do was come and visit.”

Unfortunately for Paterson, officers found a blood stained knife with his finger prints on the handle and the “confession” note in his pocket. He claimed police had planted the note on him, but forensic expert Michael Allen said he had compared the handwritten note with other documents written by Paterson, including an old diary and concluded: “In my opinion he wrote it. The possibility of someone else writing the note is so remote it can be discounted.”

 Paterson spent most of the trial sitting in a wheel chair complaining of back pain. At one stage he even lay on the floor of the dock. But  there was no sympathy. After the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict, Judge Michael Mott told him: “It seems to me you are a bad tempered, domineering bully.” He jailed Paterson for life.

Afterwards, daughter Helen said: “He was an intelligent, crafty, devious and evil man. We all used to live in fear of him. Hatred isn’t too strong a word for what I feel towards him. What he subjected our mother to was mental torture. As far as I am concerned he’s already six feet under.”