Emma Walsh was this week jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years for the murder of her boyfriend Gary Morgan.
The 31-year-old stabbed her partner in the heart at her home on Lavan Close in Everton on the evening of April 10 this year, having flown into a drink-fuelled rage following a night in the pub. But the warnings sign that she would go on to become a killer had been present for years beforehand.
Walsh had repeatedly abused the tradesman, from Prescot, during a turbulent 13-month relationship. And she had even attacked two previous lovers with knives, as was revealed in a three-week trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
READ MORE: Murderer jailed for 18 years for killing boyfriend after night in the pub
The first of these incidents came during her romance with Ayton Courtney-Stephens. On this occasion, Walsh became enraged when he refused to go to the shop to buy her tampons and lunged at him with a steak knife.
Mr Courtney-Stephens sought to block the blow with his arm, and the blade plunged straight through his wrist - severing an artery. The mum to two adopted boys later confessed to another partner, Barry Squires, that she had stabbed him after they bumped into her by then ex in Liverpool city centre.
Mr Squires was then similarly attacked. Walsh pulled a knife on him and threatened to stab him during another argument over the course of their relationship.
In March 2021, she contacted Mr Morgan on Facebook and the pair hit it off. Things went well for a time, but within weeks the murderer in the making began to attack him too.
Walsh had attacked him with the "tools of his trade", swinging a rake at him and leaving him with a "big gash on his eyebrow" after hitting him with a spirit level. He was regularly seen with black eyes, and even bite marks across his body.
When family and friends spotted the injuries he had sustained, Gary would be quick to make excuses. The dog had scratched him while they were playing, he had walked into a cupboard door, the remote had hit him in the face, he had got into a fight with a neighbour or he had slept on an air bed which deflated in the night and left him bruised.
He eventually confessed what was happening to him after a bizarre incident in the autumn of last year. He and Walsh had been due to stay at a hotel one night, but Mr Morgan drunkenly fell asleep in the lift.
He had apparently been "going up and down in the lift all night" before waking up with no shoes on. Gary left in a taxi "under the impression Emma was with some lads they had been speaking to the night before".
It was at this point that he told his mum and dad that he was being abused. Among the incidents, he opened up about was an occasion on which she stabbed him with a butter knife and smashed a plate and tried to slice his cheek with a broken shard.
In December 2021, while his mum was in hospital, Walsh threw a Subway sandwich at Mr Morgan and kicked him in the head. Then, on March 1 this year, Gary's cousin Lorna Gerrish bumped into him in the A&E department of the Royal Liverpool Hospital.
The midwifery lecturer barely recognised him due to the extent of his facial injuries. He told her "my Mrs has attacked me".
A few weeks later, on March 17, graphic designer Jason Keating bumped into his friend while he was working on a house near Sefton Park. But Mr Morgan's face was bruised and cut, and he told him Walsh had "tried to bite his nose off and stolen his phone off him".
Three-and-a-half weeks later, he was dead at her hands. The dad was 36 years old.
A string of his family members testified that they had told him that his girlfriend would end up killing him if he did not leave her. And messages between him and Walsh revealed that Mr Morgan too had raised such concerns with her.
As Gary said himself in his final words to Mr Keating: "I can't help it. I love her, but I know she's going to kill me."
The jury took only one hour and 37 minutes to unanimously convict Walsh of murder. On Monday, she sat with her back turned to the public gallery as she was told she will be approaching the age of 50 before she will be eligible for release from prison.
READ NEXT: Bar worker drove for six miles down motorway with no wheel after drunken crash
Man sexually abused boy and filmed his wife having sex with their pet dog
Paedophile pals rumbled by pervert bus driver's horrified girlfriend
Man shouted 'you little rat' and grabbed axe during town centre fight
Former karate champion accused of child sex offences set to stand trial
