A calculating killer who waited a full day to call for help after ‘mutilating’ his pregnant partner has been jailed for 23 years.
James Hutchinson, 43, murdered mum-of-two Nicola Woodman - an NHS worker - on Christmas Day last year after returning home from visiting relatives.
The couple had been arguing when Hutchinson tied her arms with electrical flex and stabbed her multiple times before hitting her with the wooden shaft of an axe.
He then left her to buy drugs and returned to their home in the Holme Park are of Bradford, where he found her “cold and stiff”, he later claimed.
It wasn’t until Boxing Day that Hutchinson called for an ambulance, saying someone had been stabbed and that the body had been there for 12 hours.
A post mortem revealed Nicola, 39, suffered 102 injuries in the brutal attack; of those, at least 24 were stab wounds.
Hutchinson was jailed for life with a minimum of 23 years at Bradford Crown Court today (Monday).
Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Spencer, of West Yorkshire Police, said: “Hutchinson’s callous and calculating actions can only be described as monstrous.
“I would like to praise Nicola’s family for the strength and dignity they have shown throughout and hope, in some small way, the sentence imposed upon Hutchinson today may give them family some satisfaction that justice has been done, and whilst it can never bring Nicola back, help them to begin to move forward with their lives.”
