Jealous husband, 28, who told wife, 30, to swallow her wedding ring before beating her to death is jailed for life
A JEALOUS husband who told his wife to swallow her wedding ring before battering her to death has been jailed today.
Shaun Dyson, 28, stamped, punched and kicked Lucy-Anne Rushton, 30, with “breathtaking brutality” while kids were in the house.
Mum-of-five Ms Rushton suffered more than 100 injuries during the brutal attack at the family home in Andover, Hants, in June.
Dyson, who was having a secret affair, denied murder but dramatically changed his plea mid-trial and today was jailed for life.
Sentencing him to a minimum of 17 years in prison, the judge Mr Justice Choudhury told Dyson: “Your jealous, controlling and violent nature which demanded that Lucy could not be with other men.
“All the while you were conducting a secret affair yourself, culminated that night in an attack that is breathtaking in its brutality.”
‘CONTROLLING AND VIOLENT’
The couple got together in 2010 and married four years later but split at the start of this year.
Simon Jones, prosecuting, told Winchester Crown Court Ms Rushton became the victim of a “history of domestic violence”.
The jury was shown CCTV footage of the defendant striking and spitting at Ms Rushton in a hotel corridor in Bournemouth in September 2018.
However, she denied she had been assaulted when police arrived 15 minutes later, the prosecutor said.
During the two week trial the court heard how Dyson had become “enraged” by a phone call that Lucy received from a former lover in what his defense called a “toxic relationship”.
They also heard that he had hit Ms Rushton previously that evening.
‘SWALLOW THE RING’
Jones said that a child witness had seen the defendant say to Ms Rushton in the early hours of June 23: “Swallow the ring because we are not together anymore.”
He added the witness said Ms Rushton had put the ring in her mouth but had not swallowed it because they had seen it on the stairs later, where it was found.
Mr Jones said the child witness had woken up again to see Dyson hitting Ms Rushton and she had a “sad voice” while the defendant was in a “mean mood”.
‘STRIKINGLY CALM’
Mr Dyson made a “strikingly calm” 999 call at 5.17am and was asked by an ambulance call handler whether he was performing CPR.
He replied: “I was, but not right now, no, because I [have] been asleep.”
Paramedics arrived to find Ms Rushton’s lifeless naked body on a bed.
Mr Dyson then disappeared and messaged police, family and friends over a period of 10 hours, telling them that his wife had drowned when he threw water over her to wake her up.
Ms Rushton had told members of her family in the months before she died that she feared Dyson would murder her.
‘DESTROYED US COMPLETELY’
The prosecutor added: “She was convinced that he was going to do something to her and if he couldn’t have her, no-one could.”
Ms Rushton had also raised concerns about the defendant and that he “had a bag ready with a change of clothes and weapons”.
Following the trial a victim impact statement from Ms Rushton’s mother, Myra Simpson, said: “As a family Shaun Dyson has destroyed us completely, completely broken every single one of us.
“Our lives will never be the same, he has ruined her children’s lives forever, they no longer have a mum to watch them grow up, to just be there when they need her.”
BREATHTAKING BRUTALITY
Giving evidence, Dyson said: “I feel broken, ashamed, devastated for Lucy, heartbroken for our family. It’s been six months and it doesn’t feel real.”
Sarah Jones QC, defending, said: “The sad truth is that this relationship and the family around it conducted their frustrations, their sadness, problems they had in front of whoever may be present and if that was the very young then so be it.”
“This was a decision made by both sides and does not fall purely or entirely on the shoulders of Shaun Dyson.”
