Mother of murdered Ryan Hawkins to divorce killer Christopher Hawins

Jul 24 2010 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

MURDERER Christopher Hawkins has lost his bitter battle to keep a stranglehold over the mother of the boy he killed in cold blood.

Hawkins was jailed for life for stabbing his four-year-old son Ryan to death in a frenzied attack in Slaithwaite on September 23, 2007.

Since then he has plotted from his prison cell to block repeated attempts by his estranged wife, Val Gee, to file for divorce.

But 43-year-old Val is finally celebrating after getting the go-ahead to divorce him.

She has got her decree nisi – the court order that says she can have a divorce.

“I’m planning a big party,’’ she said. “It is such a relief.

“In my eyes, when he did what he did, I should have been granted a divorce there and then.

“Who wants to be married to a killer?”

Val and Hawkins married on September 22, 1990.

He had a reputation for fighting at the time and started to exhibit violent tendencies during their marriage.

One Christmas Eve he punched Val during a night out, but she wanted to believe it was an isolated incident.

But he became increasingly violent, and Val left him after an incident in January, 2007, when he throttled and spat at her.

She started to see another man, Lee Tinker, and first filed for divorce in July of that year, but Hawkins refused to comply.